THE OLIVE 



17 



olive that will not return ten per cent, of its weight in oil had better 

 be abandoned for one that will. A large and fully developed tree 

 has been known to yield as much as sixteen gallons of oil. 



In Florence, Italy, Mr. Goodrich has found it a matter of in- 

 creasing difficulty each year to get pure oil. In fact the manager 

 of a large olive grove in the vicinity had the hardihood to tell him 

 that he did not believe it possible to procure any there. The out- 

 put of cotton seed oil in the United States is half a million 

 tons, or seventeen million five hundred thousand gallons. In 

 the late Congressional investigation into the Cotton Seed Oil 

 Trust, it was developed that t wenty -seven per cent, is exported to be 

 used as an adulterant of olive oil. In Italy it is poured over the 

 olives in the crusher to thoroughly mix the two oils. " Originally 

 cotton-seed oil was used to merely adulterate, which was bad enough, 

 but of late it is pressed on the public with greater boldness. 



The British Consul at Leghorn, in his report for 1886, states 

 that the Florentine flasks in which pure olive oil was formerly 

 shipped to the British market are now sent direct to London 

 empty and there filled with cotton seed oil, and he warns the 

 public accordingly. The following is from a late work in the 

 interest of cotton seed oil : "It is hoped that in time the prejudice 

 now existing against cotton seed oil in this country will be overcome 

 and our people, like those of Europe, take to cooking their food in 

 oil instead of using lard. That there is a growing demand for cot- 

 ton seed oil for table use and culinary purposes is evidenced by the 

 increased business of merchants who make a specialty of filling fancy 

 bottles with cotton seed oil." We are all familiar with the fancy 

 bottles and the blatant claim that they contain pure olive oil. 

 These so called merchants are engaged in deceiving the public, in 

 endeavoring to palm off cotton seed oil for olive oil. Cotton seed 

 oil is refined by treatment with alkaline carbonates and caustic al- 

 kalies, and this fact is sufficient to condemn it as a food oil. 



