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SINGLE AND MIXED CULTIVATION. 



The distance from plant to plant varies according to the system of 

 cultivation and also according to the variety. Where nothing else is culti- 

 vated, twenty-four or twenty-eight feet is enough for a tree of small develop- 

 ment as the precious Frantoiano. For all other varieties, from thirty-five 

 to forty-five feet are necessary. The generous olive may pay you, however 

 neglected, but never if you deprive it of plenty of sunshine and light. 

 The greedy cultivator who crowds his olive trees, is apt to have the success 

 of the greedy woman who doubled the food to her chicken in order to have 

 two eggs per day instead of one. She lost not only the eggs, but the 

 chicken also. Poor and small crops, diseases and devastating insects, are 

 generally the result of crowded olive groves or fruit orchards. 



The mixed cultivation is by far the best and most profitable. It requires 

 less attention and fertilizers; it resists more to droughts, to diseases and to 

 insects, and its crops are superior in quantity and quality. The distance 

 of plants in this kind of cultivation is from forty to fifty feet for trees of 

 small volume, from sixty to eighty for trees of large development. 



Any other fruit tree may be successfully cultivated by the mixed system, 

 and also any kind of vegetables. The olive, for its nature, seems to be 

 rather benefited by such cultivation. Cereals only are detrimental to the 

 olive tree, for they absorb much from the soil and little from the air, while 

 the reverse is, to a great extent, with fruit trees and vegetables. 



The principal objection to single cultivation is, of course, the crowded 

 condition generally observed in such groves. A distance of twenty-four or 

 twenty-eight feet for small trees, or thirty-five or forty-five for large ones, 

 rarely afford to the mature tree all the sunshine and light required for its 

 greatest success. 



Long experience has proved that twenty olive trees in mixed cultivation 

 may be made to produce as much as one hundred trees of equal kind and 

 size in the single system, if the distance between trees is as I have stated. 

 The quality of the product is generally much better also. 



The wise cultivator never allows the olive tree to develop lateral branches 

 until five feet from the ground, thus concentrating all the vigor in the trunk 

 of the plant. With the aid of good fertilizers, he thus succeeds to develop 

 in a few years an olive tree almost as large as a prune tree of the same 

 age. 



Four or five feet from the ground he allows the formation of lateral 

 branches. . At this stage, when the winter is over, he cuts the guide or 

 central part of the plant, leaving the trunk with only three lateral branches. 

 The wounds are most carefully bound with the asphaltum paste mentioned. 

 From the three branches other lateral branches are soon developed, and 

 the tree assumes a convenient form for the greatest production. 



FERTILIZATION AND CARE. 



In cold localities fertilizers are applied in the fall; in warm places the 

 application is made in spring time. A yearly contribution is necessary for 

 a large and fine crop of olives. Good and deep soil is not excepted, although 

 poor soil needs it the most. The very best method of fertilizing is by exca- 

 vating the soil around the roots, but not quite to their surface; applying 

 then the fertilizer well mixed with soil, covering it immediately. The next 

 best method is by making holes fifteen or eighteen inches deep, four or five 

 feet from the trunk of the olive, applying the fertilizer and covering it. The 

 greatest care is taken to never allow the fertilizer to come in contact with 



