THE OLIVE 



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Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself 

 •with the oil ; for thine olive shall cast his fruit. Deuteronomy xxvnr, 40. 



And over the olive trees and the sycamore trees that were in the low plains was Baal-hanari 

 the Gederite, and over the cellars of oil was Joash. i Chronicles xxvii, 28. 



The Lord called thy name a green olive tree, fair and of goodly fruit; with the noise of 

 great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it and the branches of it are broken. 



Jeremiah xi, 16. 



And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny 

 and three measures of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the oil and the Avine. 



Revelation vi, 6. 



Here where plagues were sent forth broadcast they were first laid 

 under an injunction not to harm the oil and the Avine. Does it not 

 then seem that the land of the olive and the wine is an especially 

 favored one? These Biblical references are interesting for their 

 antiquity and the view they give us of the management of the olive 

 at that remote period. The manner of harvesting, of oil making 

 by treading the berries, of planting on fertile plains where syca- 

 mores grow, of seeking the wild olives on the mountains Avhere the 

 birds had scattered the seeds, of the danger of the olive from fire, 

 all this is repeated to-day in the European home of the olive. 

 The oil olive, being essentially a product of civilization, no longer 

 flourishes in Palestine; without man's fostering care it soon reverts 

 to its wild state and ceases to fruit, and finally disappears altogether. 



The ancients regarded the olive with reverence and awe. The 

 ease with which it sprang into renewed life, the vitality it possessed, 

 and the hoary age it attained, all led them to endow it with a divine 

 origin. 



The Greeks dedicated it to Minerva, and with evergreen olive 

 leaves bound the brows of brave captains and citizens most marked 

 for virtue and wisdom. 



The Romans held the olive in a much greater esteem than their 

 simple appreciation of the oil, and mingled the leaves in the triumphal 

 crowns of the defenders of the country. 



Professor Caruso says : 



" The olive, because of the moderate care which it requires and 

 the copiousness and value of its product, may be considered as a 



