24 



SAMUEL RAE & CO. LEGHORN, TUSCANY. 



at the price of common oil. Olive oil 

 of really fine quality is so delicate that 

 the addition of as little as one per cent, 

 of its volume of cotton-seed, or other 

 such oil, a quantity far too small to pay, 

 can be easily detected by the taste. 

 Such oil is ruined, degraded in fact, and 

 acquires the unmistakable twang of 

 cotton-seed oil. However highly refined 

 the latter may be, it is rank and nau- 

 seous compared with good olive oil. 



Common olive oil, which is more or 

 less fetid, can hardly be made much 

 worse, so far as the taste is concerned, 

 by being adulterated ; and this is the 

 kind of oil which is adulterated. It is 

 necessary to add that in Tuscany, as gen- 

 erally throughout Italy, olive oil grow- 

 ers never attempt any adulteration of 

 their produce, but rather are anxious 

 that the practice should be put down by 

 law, as contrary to their interests ; and 

 such it undoubtedly is. 



As to the export trade in fine olive 

 oil, it is certain that the brand of a firm 

 of long standing and high repute affords 

 the best guarantee of purity and genu- 

 ineness. Hence, the difficulty some- 

 times alleged of obtaining Tuscan olive 

 oil of equal purity and excellence is 

 exaggerated. 



Where is the Finest Olive Oil Grown? 



In Italy the finer qualities of olive oil 

 are produced in the districts of Bari, on 

 the south-east shore of the Adriatic, Um- 

 bria in central Italy, Tuscany, and Ligu- 

 ria, the latter including the districts of 

 Genoa and Porto Maurizio — the Riviera, 

 it is generally called. 



The chief olive oil producing districts 



* Emile Negrin. Guide de Nice," 1874. 

 ^'As to the oil of Aix, it is a joke in- 

 vented against the inhabitants of Aix : when 



of France are Nice and Provence (Alpes- 

 Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhone, and Var; 

 the produce of Provence being frequent- 

 ly called Aix oil. 



A French writer thus alludes in jest 

 to Aix oil: "Quant a I'huile d'Aix, 

 c'est une plaisanterie inventee contre les 

 Aixois : pendant que je faisais mon 

 cours de droit a Aix, je n'y ai vu que 

 quelques oliviers, gros comme des 

 chous de Bruxelles." * 



Nice oil resembles in character the 

 produce of the adjacent district of the 

 Riviera, Italy, sometimes called the 

 Genoa district, and is superior to the oil 

 of Provence or Aix. The reason is not 

 far to seek. Most of the olives in Pro- 

 vence, owing to the special conditions 

 of the locality, are of an inferior class ; 

 chiefly of the Moraiolo variety, which, 

 as we had occasion to explain in treat- 

 ing of the different varieties of the olive- 

 tree, most approximates to the wild 

 olive. 



Provence oil has been much bepraised 

 by interested persons ; but any repu- 

 tation it may have acquired in places 

 where little is known on the subject of 

 fine olive oil is purely fictitious and 

 destitute of real foundation. 



No olive oil produced elsewhere in 

 Italy, or in any part of France, can com- 

 pare with the best Tuscan oil which 

 it is the privilege of the neighboring 

 provinces of Lucca and Pisa to produce. 

 The other sections of Tuscany, namely, 

 Florence, Siena, and Grosseto, produce 

 good qualities, but not equal to the oils 

 of Lucca and Pisa. 



In these favored districts the hills, up 

 to a certain altitude, and where the sit- 

 uation is favorable, are clothed with fine 



1 was attending a course of law at Aix, 1 saw 

 there only a few olive-trees as big as Brussels 

 sprouts. " 



