THE OLIVE 



71 



after the graft has taken. Manured and placed in good earth, the 

 olive requires only three years to form after having been grafted. 



The grafts should be taken from that part of the tree which is 

 opposite the mid-day sun. They are chosen from the shoot that 

 would bear fruit the following year. 



Those who graft the young tree upon the trunk and not upon the 

 mother branches, take the scions from the shoots which are about to 

 flower. 



SUCKEES, KXOTS, LAYEES AND EOOTS. 



The knots, or knobs seen on the trunks of olives that have attain- 

 ed any age, are caused by brushing off the suckers that put out on 

 the trunk. The bark forms over the wound made, and a slight ex- 

 crescence is raised, which persistently sends out further shoots, and 

 the same process being repeated a multitude of times, the final re- 

 sult is a knob, or egg, of varying size. These, cut from the tree and 

 planted at a depth of from four to six inches, give birth to an innu- 

 merable quantity of 3 T oung plants, and is the favorite mode of prop- 

 agating in certain parts of Italy, having superseded that by cuttings 

 altogether. 



The sucker is a developed egg or knob, having germinated while 

 on the tree. 



These knobs should be cut from the tree with a sharp instrument 

 and the wound carefully smoothed over and covered with clay or 

 grafting wax. A mixture of cow-dung and clay make a cheap sub- 

 stitute for the latter. But the weight of opinion is against this mode 

 of propagation. The Avounds caused the tree are grievous and hard 

 to be borne. They give an opening to the "Lupa" or rot which is 

 ready to attack the olive on the slightest provocation. Only a doom- 

 ed tree should be dismembered in this way. 



The suckers about the root of an olive may be laid down and cov- 

 ered with earth and will give further plants. 



The underground portion of the olive tree is composed of two 



