42 



If the bird saves our crops from a partial or total destruction, we should 

 not be so selfish as to pretend that he should starve. 



Aves multiplicentur is as good a saying to-day as in the time of Virgil. 

 Multiply, protect insect birds, and all your anxiety, all your troubles and 

 expenses about fruit pests will soon disappear and many million dollars 

 be added annually to the commonwealth. 



OLIVE PICKING. 



The olive is ripe when it assumes a dark purple or dark brown color, 

 according to its variety. If picked before it is fully ripe, the oil will have 

 a greenish color and a bitter tendency. If the picking is delayed a month 

 after maturity, the oil will be four or five per cent more abundant, but of 

 that much inferior quality. The best oil is the one made soon after the 

 picking of a seasoned fruit. 



If the plant is of the Frantoiano family, picking is effected easily by 

 hands. If of a larger size, shaking is resorted to. I have already stated 

 how the tree is deprived of its damaged fruit. A repetition of the oper- 

 ation is now made, if necessary. When the damaged berries are down, 

 large blankets are unfolded under the branches, and the tree is vigor- 

 ously shaken by the picker among the branches. The ripe fruit is soon 

 down, without the least injury to the foliage of the plant. The fruit thus 

 obtained is generally free of leaves or other impurities; but if necessary a 

 powerful hand bellows or fan is used while the berries are on the blanket. 



The olives are brought into a preserving room, the temperature of which 

 is kept from 55 degrees to 63 degrees Fahrenheit. If they are wet, they 

 are dried gradually at the same temperature, on blankets. If the temper- 

 ature of the room is above 63 degrees, the oil will be of inferior quality. 

 The olives in the preserving room are so disposed as to permit a free cir- 

 culation of air through them, preventing heat and fermentation. In this 

 way, and at such a temperature, they may be kept two weeks without the 

 least injury; the sooner, however, the oil is made the better. 



The fruit of the finest varieties of trees is kept separate from coarse 

 varieties. The valley and hill fruit is never put together in] good oileries, 

 for hill oil is invariably the finest. 



OIL MAKING. 



Unless the crop is large enough to go into thousands of gallons, a simple 

 and cheap stone mill, turned by a horse, and a hand press is all the ma- 

 chinery required. For greater quantity of oil water or steam power is nec- 

 essary, but the principle of the crushing mill and press is the same. 



The crushing machine consists of a circular trough, the top of which, 

 made of granite or slate slabs, assumes the form of a dish. A millstone, 

 eight or ten inches thick and four feet in diameter, is made to revolve in 

 the trough by a vertical beam. The crushing stone is so arranged as to be 

 raised a few inches from the trough or lowered at will. The olives are 

 brought in from the preserving room, laid in the trough about three inches 

 thick, and the stone is set in motion. 



If you want virgin or first class oil, you must raise the stone so as to not 

 permit the least cracking of the pits, or your oil will never rank as virgin. 

 Several turns of the stone, and your olives are bruised enough for the press. 



The temperature of the crushing and press room must be kept the same 

 as that of the preserving room. If cooler, the oil will be less and it will 



