(Consociation 



CHAPTER VII. 



" Marry the olive and the vine." 



The soil which suits the vine is also good for the olive. This is 

 what is seen throughout the greater part of Italy; there they say 

 the olive does not prosper in celibacy. The deep soils can well 

 support both. Consociation offers the great advantage of getting 

 some return from the soil during the lengthened youth of this tree, 

 which when it has grown to a sufficient size, the vine plot com- 

 mences to age, and, disappearing by degrees, leaves the olive sole 

 occupant of the soil. When the olives grow to a large size, and are 

 planted near to each other, or in places where the ground is poor, 

 other crops are not usually grown. With these two exceptions, the 

 ground under the trees is generally utilized. At Grasse and Nice, 

 they associate together the olive and the fig, and other fruit trees; 

 as also the vine. In such cases the trees are planted in rows, about 

 twenty feet apart, and the intervening space is sown one year in 

 beans, or maize, and the next year in corn. The Inspector General 

 of the Government Plantations of France says: This system can- 

 not be sufficiently applauded, both because, in many years of failure, 

 all the interest of the capital in the ground would not be lost, and 

 because the olive trees would benefit from the earth given to the 

 other plants; and even, because the more distant the trees are 

 planted in the rows, the more are they loaded with fruit, and pay 

 better. 



Signor Cappi also says: This culture may very well exist, and 

 has been used in various provinces of Italy, especially in vast plains, 

 with excellent results. On plains they should be planted twenty- 

 five feet apart, and not less than fifty feet between the rows if vines 

 are cultivated. Experience, some say, has showii that the olive cul- 

 tivated alone, in rich soil grows vigorously; makes each year a num- 

 ber of new shoots, but gives little fruit, as the sap being too active to 



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