30 



DRY-LAND OLIVE CULTURE IN NORTHERN AFRICA. 



tations, however, the trees are pruned lightly every year, and this is 

 said to insure larger yields year in and year out and to cause less 

 injury to the trees. In annual pruning, the custom is to prune 

 lightly after a small crop in order to secure a heavy crop the season 

 following. After a good crop a thorough pruning is given, as the 

 same tree will not yield heavily two years in succession. 



HARVESTING. 



Olives commence to ripen at Sfax in October, those borne by the 

 youngest trees being the first to mature. The harvest ordinarily 



begins in the latter part of 

 October and lasts until the 

 end of January, but when 

 the crop is unusually heavy 

 it sometimes continues until 

 March or even April. The 

 fruit is mostly sold on the 

 tree, the buyer taking charge 

 of the harvest. In this, as 

 in all operations connected 

 with olive growing, greater 

 care is taken at Sfax than 

 i n m ost olive - producing 

 regions. The harvester by 

 means of a double ladder 

 (see PI. I, frontispiece) is 

 able to gather most of the 



Fig. 9.— The tree shown in figures 7 and 8 as f m i t by hand. The USe of 

 it appears when five years old. (After . -it p 



Minangoin.) a pole is avoided as iar as 



possible, since the olives are 

 likely to be injured by bruises when knocked off. Moreover, many of 

 the young twigs, which are to bear the crop of the following year, 

 are destroyed when this method is followed. In pruning, the im- 

 portance of making every part of the tree as accessible as possible to 

 the harvester with his ladder is taken into consideration. 



The natives are very dexterous in gathering the fruit, holding the 

 branch with the left hand and stripping it with the right, three fin- 

 gers of which are armed with the tips of rams' horns, worn like thim- 

 bles. The fruit is stripped off into a basket which is fastened to the 

 ladder. When full, the basket is lowered to the ground by means of a 

 cord. It is then emptied by the women upon pieces of cloth or mat- 

 ting, and the fruit is freed from the debris of leaves, twigs, etc., 

 mixed with it. Finally the olives are packed into large panniers, two 

 of which make up a camel load (450 pounds). In the evening or 



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