38 THE OLIVE 



To temper too warm a climate water seems to be resorted to. In 

 the Island of Canclia in the Mediterranean on the thirty-fourth 

 parallel the olives fruit regularly when watered, if they receive no 

 water it is quite doubtful if the flowers set or not. In Athens, Greece, 

 if they are not irrigated their yield is very uncertain. In Africa — 

 both in Morocco and Algiers — in order to secure a crop it becomes 

 absolutely necessary to give them water. In Valencia and Murcia, 

 Spain, it is the usual practice to water the olive, and indeed with a 

 loose soil and dry climate the irrigated trees respond with the surest 

 crop. But the soil, the climate and the exposure must be the guide 

 and indicate the necessity. Owing to the extreme dryness of the 

 California summer, it is possible it may become needful in certain 

 localities to irrigate the orchard in order to insure a crop. To deal 

 with sections where there are apt to be cold snaps, the only remedy 

 is to chose those varieties more nearly resembling the wild type 

 which are hardier and better able to resist low temperature. The 

 smaller the tree and the closer to the ground it grows naturally, the 

 more likely it is to be damaged by a frost. On the Quito farm the 

 late cold weather* did absolutely no harm although there were trees 

 on the place of not more than three years of age, and the mercury 

 touched sixteen degrees above zero. Even a higher temperature 

 than this has been fatal to olive trees, but that has been the result of 

 a sudden thawing after a cold night. Anything lower than four- 

 teen degrees of cold is too chilling for the olive to endure; such 

 weather not only will kill the leaves and branches, but even the 

 wood itself will succumb. The olive is not so hardy as the grape- 

 vine, the latter requiring only ten thousand eight hundred degrees 

 Fahrenheit to ripen its fruit, whereas the olive needs twelve thous- 

 and seven hundred degrees, although some varieties will ripen with 

 ten thousand eight hundred degrees, from blossoming time to ma- 

 turity, among which is the Spanish Manzanillo. To ascertain 

 whether any particular locality in California is suitable for olive 



^January, 1888. 



