22 



THE OLIVE 



the olive. The ancient Italian authors enumerated comparatively 

 few, from twelve to sixteen, but a modern writer on the subject 

 in that country has summed up to over three hundred. 

 Each locality where olives have been grown has added a name 

 suggested by chance appearance or local prejudice, until a perfect 

 chaos exists, utterly meaningless to anyone outside of the narrow 

 section where it may be familiar. Take some of the Spanish names 

 for instance, such as the " Rabbit's eye," the " Pillow-case the 

 " Little round " — these are absurd and convey no significance to 

 anyone not living in the province in Spain where they may be 

 grown. They are evidently given to impart the idea of the shape 

 of different berries and in ignorance of the fact that olives should 

 not be classified by the appearance of the fruit, but by the character- 

 istics of the tree, for the very sufficient reason that trees of entirely 

 different appearance and habits, produce berries very similar in form. 



In this State we are likely, as olive culture progresses, to find great 

 difficulty in recognizing what an olive is from its name. We were 

 launched with some Spanish varieties which to us have become Mis- 

 sion, then a number of French plants became known, and lastly 

 the Italian are coming in. The Spanish have never shown the 

 world any good oil, although it could undoubtedly be made there. 

 The quality is probably somewhat affected by the latitude. 



The French for years have drawn the bulk of their supply of 

 oil from Italy and to-day the oil provinces of Northern Italy are 

 overrun with French oil buyers, and bad oil cannot be made good, 

 although the French are adepts at anything of this kind. If their 

 oil has merit it is because it was properly made. Italy is the foun- 

 tain head. Italy has long been the source of all the good oil 

 we have ever known. Italy has carried the cultivation of this 

 tree to greater perfection than any other country on the globe. 

 How can we then do better than follow the classification of 

 Professor Caruso, Professor of Agriculture of the National Univer- 

 sity of Pisa, who at the instance of the Italian Government has 



