74 



THE OLIVE 



fix the blossom, is carried to the extremities, and the flower falls. 

 To obtain good trees quickly, one should never sow underneath 

 them at first, but however afterwards, to get good fruit it is advan- 

 tageous to do so; but only then the year of the crop. Thus one 

 should prune, manure, and cultivate to force shoots or young wood 

 to bear fruit. 



The season following, sow under the trees to moderate the flow of 

 the sap, stay the growth of wood, and cause the blossom to set. In 

 an indifferent soil this would be hurtful, as there is never an excess 

 of vegetation. However, in similar conditions, in place of sowing 

 an exhausting cereal, they sow vegetables, beans, lupins or peas. 

 Green crops, as manure, are often dug in, and thus the olive dur- 

 ing summer, finds sufficient subsistence to help it to bring a crop to 

 maturitv. 



In growing other crops with the olive, it derives benefit from the 

 frequent labor that the ground receives in their cultivation, as it 

 loves to vegetate in a soil often stirred and largely manured. Few 

 trees to the acre will produce a much better result than many. 



The olive crop is a precarious one and therefore he will be wise 

 who associates his olives with other fruits, that he may have a 

 harvest. For level ground an acre can easily carry forty seven 

 olives, forty seven fruit trees, such as figs, peaches, prunes, mulber- 

 ries or whatever may be suitable to the neighborhood and three hun- 

 dred and two vines, thus : 



11 22 33 44 



O X (. X © 



G x o 



X 



- 



G x o x G 



O— Olive Tree. o— Fruit Tree. x— Vine. 



