67 



greatly deteriorated. I would like to have him inspect the oil to determine 

 that fact. 



Mr. Dondero: What I have stated is from the authorities that gave me 

 the details, and the greatest oil maker of Italy, who has the most perfect 

 system, states that they adhere to the rule never to go beyond 63 degrees 

 Fahrenheit, if you want the finest kind of oil. 



Mr. Kimball: What is the normal temperature of the atmosphere where 

 the oil is made? 



Mr. Dondero: It is generally from 55 to 65 or 70 degrees. 



Mr. Kimball: In your essay I understand you to say that the tempera- 

 ture of 72 degrees would be taken to ripen the olive. 



Mr. Dondero: That is the time the fruit is ripening — the heat of the 

 season. 



Mr. Kimball: It seems to me the picking of the olive and its ripening 

 progresses along for some two or three months; and it must be made dur- 

 ing the time the temperature exceeds 63 degrees very much, even to 75 or 

 80 degrees. I cannot, for my life, see how the oil should be of the quality 

 which you determine is its quality, when the temperature would far exceed 

 the temperature at which the best oil can be made. 



Mr. Dondero: That is the authority given by the most eminent oil pro- 

 ducers. Of course I cannot go any further than that. 



Mr. Butler: I would like to ask the gentleman how he reconciles the 

 assertion he made with the fact that the best brands imported to this 

 country from Italy bring only 75 cents a bottle, when the oil manufactured 

 by the President brings a price very much in excess of that? 



Mr. Hatch: And I would like to add to that the suggestion that there 

 must be merit in the California article, from the fact that most foreign 

 importations are preferred, even if they are inferior in quality. 



General Chipman, of Red Bluff: I hesitate to enter upon a discussion 

 of a matter that I know nothing about; but I want to make one observa- 

 tion, without knowing anything about the cultivation of olives, and that is, 

 it seems to me that Mr. Butler is fully answered by the statement of the 

 President when he says that the best olive oil of Europe imported into this 

 country is adulterated and, of course, cheaper. Now, I remember when the 

 olive oil brought to this country was pure and when it was comparatively 

 cheap. I remember to have bought it myself in Italy very cheap, and 

 brought it over with me, and there was no question but what it was pure. 

 But we must not forget that this country has become a great consumer of 

 European goods; we have grown rich in twenty-five years, and are able to 

 buy things; and then, as you will observe, there is a certain fancy that 

 enters into these things. There are a great many people who would pay 

 two dollars a bottle for your oil out of that fancy and in view of the fact 

 that the foreign article is known to be adulterated. 



Mr. Cooper: The gentleman has asked the question if the great demand 

 for this oil comes more for medicinal purposes than to be used as a luxury. 

 It is valued for medicinal purposes because people know it is pure; if the 

 people had confidence that the oil put up by Crosse & Blackwell, or Barton 

 & Guestier, or any of the Spanish or Italian oils sold in San Francisco 

 were pure, they would not perhaps pay those fancy prices for my oil; the 

 fact that it is good, that it is sweet, that it will not become rancid in any 

 reasonable length of time, and that it is known to be pure, gives it that 

 extraordinary value. 



Mr. Butler: In one of the essays read here legislative intervention was 

 asked in order to prevent adulteration in this State. Now, I would like to 

 ask. if it becomes illegal to adulterate oil in this State, whether the great 



