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wherever the plant is properly treated, as I am about to indicate. It is 

 not the quantity, but the quality, that counts. It is not every husband 

 that knows how to appreciate a loving, self-sacrificing, God-sent wife. It 

 is not every pruner that knows the virtue and capacity of each branch. 

 And yet how easily the thing can be learned by observation ! 



The olive has two kinds of foliage — the one formed last year, which will 

 produce this year, and the one formed this spring, which will produce 

 next year. It has also two kinds of buds, easily recognized by their 

 round form and diamond-shaped points; one will bloom, the other will 

 produce leaves. If in pruning yearly you equalize proportionally the 

 fruiting and the wooding buds, your success for an excellent crop is 

 assured. The result is almost astonishing, if you feed the tree with a 

 good fertilizer, and soften the ground under the branches at least thrice a 

 year. 



The greatest success, however, is obtained by pruning the tree as soon as 

 its berries begin to ripen. While pruning, the shaking of the tree will effect 

 another good purpose. The damaged berries, by their weak nature, will fall 

 to the ground, thus insuring a good oil out of the crop without further labor 

 or trouble, and the sap, on account of the wounds caused by the pruner, 

 rushes to increase the volume and the value of the sound berries; while 

 the plant becomes from this time on well prepared for another large crop 

 in the following year. 



The greatest care, however, is put in covering all cuts made during the 

 operation of pruning with a paste made of one part of clay and two of cow 

 dung, tempered with water. It causes a prompt formation of the bark on 

 the affected parts. 



Another method for increasing the annual crop is gradually gaining 

 ground, with a most wonderful result. It consists, besides pruning, in 

 depriving at the same time the plant of all branches containing less than 

 five leaves. The tree in the following season covers itself with large clus- 

 ters of olives to such an extent that a support is often necessary. 



In pruning are cut down, besides all dead and damaged wood, all shoots' 

 with a vertical growth, and all branches covered with vigorous leaves, for 

 they are the black sheep of the family, thus promoting the possible fecundity 

 of the plant. Old branches with sparse leaves are the greatest producers. 



All cuts must be made cleanly, and possibly by a single stroke, with an 

 inclined not horizontal direction, and healed with the last named paste. 



DISEASES AND INSECTS. 



The olive, as proven by its wonderful average of duration, is the healthi- 

 est of fruit trees. Like all things mortal, however, it is subject to some dis- 

 eases and insects, if the laws of its nature are not properly observed. The 

 principal diseases developed in Italy are the following: The worst of all is 

 a necrosis, or rottening of the plant. It begins on the surface of the bark, 

 proceeding internally. Its development is due to wounds not properly 

 cured, as in grafting or pruning. It attacks trees on damp soil only. The 

 only remedy, if taken in time, is to cut the rotten part, healing it with coal 

 tar. 



The black scale, deriving from fumage oleas, is caused by dampness, by 

 a deficiency of the elements of the plant in the soil, by want of sufficient 

 light and space for the tree. Wherever none of these three things are 

 wanting, the black scale, so dreaded and devastating in California, never 

 shows itself, at least in Italy. And wherever it appears its damage is 

 unnoticed, if there are antiparasitic birds of tender beak. 



