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SECOND DAY'S PKOOEEDINGS. 



Chico, November 22, 1888. 



President Cooper in the chair. 



OLIVE CULTURE. 



Essay by Chas. Dondeeo, San Francisco. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: In a communication to the "San Francisco 

 Morning Call," I alluded to the respective merits of California and Italian 

 olive oil. I did so, prompted by what I deemed a sense of justice, and I 

 certainly had no idea that I would be called to the honor of appearing with 

 this memoir on the olive, before a vast assemblage of California's most in- 

 telligent horticulturists as this convention is composed of — citizens of this 

 blessed land of matchless freedom, who, like the Romans of old, have 

 selected their noblest legislators and magistrates. 



I shall endeavor to be brief, but necessarily exhaustive. I shall not pre- 

 sent you opinions or theories, but the practical experience of ages. I will 

 give you the best results yet attained in olive culture, and the key to its 

 greatest suiccess. 



And, as gratitude is the most divine of man's virtues, and you are a sub- 

 lime example of it to the world as a nation with your annual Thanksgiving, 

 so I will here say that for nearly all my statements, although born among 

 olive groves, as the largest portion of my industrious countrymen, I am in- 

 debted to first-class practical agronomists such as Bechi, Capponi, Passerini, 

 Ridoli, Breamonte, the Presidents of the Chamber of Commerce of Siena 

 and Porto Maurizio, the Minister of Agriculture, and to my lifelong friend 

 Gattorna, now of Santa Clara Valley — a modest and intelligent agricult- 

 urist with a heart as big as the wonderful lens of the Lick telescope over- 

 looking that charming spot. 



There are no countries in the world so similar in topographical conforma- 

 tion, position, climate, and agricultural products as Italy and California. 

 Whatever grows there will grow here, and vice versa. Italy has a match- 

 less sky; California a blessed exemption from desolating storms. Italy has 

 a finer flavored, California a larger fruit. Italy has tenacity; California a 

 most productive soil. Italy's fruit has a longer keeping power: California's 

 ripens much earlier. California has insect-breeding fog belts; Italy the 

 source of the proper remedy. 



The olive is justly considered the Providence of Italy. It was undoubt- 

 edly cultivated there before Cassandra's prediction on the fate of Troy; 

 before Homer had immortalized the wrath of Achilles. According to his- 

 tory, the great olive trees yet seen around Tivoli, whose gigantic forms 

 rival the majestic Sequoias of the Sierras, were already old when Romulus 

 traced with the plow the walls of Rome — the city whose genius was to 

 shape the destinies of nations for centuries. Since then mighty rulers, 

 powerful empires, bright and barbarous civilizations have arisen and dis- 



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