THE OLIVE 



63 



trees should be topped with an inclination of south to north and 

 the cut always covered with grafting wax. A grove of olive trees 

 should be planted so that at the spring equinox no tree will cast a 

 shadow on its nearest neighbor from south to north. 



CUTTIXGS. 



This mode of propagating the olive is popular in Spain and in 

 certain parts of Italy and Sicily. It was also known to the ancients. 

 But in many localities it has been abandoned as being too uncertain. 

 For cuttings take clean and well sized branches of from one to 

 four inches in diameter, and cut in one foot lengths. These should 

 be prepared in winter, before vegetation commences and the buds, 

 move, but if they are not immediately planted, they should be kej)t 

 covered in a moist, cool place. The essential conditions for rooting 

 are, moderate moisture in the soil, a subterranean temperature of 

 about forty-one degrees P., with an atmospheric average of from 

 fifty to fifty-two, thus giving time for the roots to form, extend and 

 strengthen in advance of the first dryness of spring and early sum- 

 mer. Cuttings put in in April or May, root quicker but demand 

 more frequent irrigation. Those will do best, which before being 

 cut off from the mother branch, have been either ringed, or burned, 

 or skinned, below a bud, so as to form a knot above the wound. 

 There are many different ways of putting out cuttings. They may 

 be planted in a trench well manured, each two making a triangle, 

 the bottom of the trench being the base, and the two cuttings meet- 

 ing at a point and being covered with from three to four inches of 

 earth ; when the young shoots have attained sufficient size to trans- 

 plant, they may be torn away with a quick jerk, generally bringing 

 with them a strip of bark which will suffice as a root, and leaving the 

 parent cutting in place, where it will immediately produce more 

 shoots which may be treated in the same way. 



Very good results have been attained by planting a cutting hori- 

 zontally, and covering it with four inches of earth ; by some this 



