THE OLIVE 



95 



When tlie trees are too near together, the ground is unable to 

 sustain so many and it is necessary to transplant a portion of them. 

 When this necessity is apparent every third, or every other tree 

 will have to come out. This is likely to be the experience of many 

 olive growers in this State. Fortunately the tree will bear it. 



The first stej3 is to cut the tree down to the crotch leaving four 

 arms or stumps, the nucleus of the future primary branches of the 

 new tree. It is then dug up with as much earth as possible and 

 transported to the hole already prepared for it. In the spring of 

 1888, fifteen hundred olive trees between ten and twenty years of 

 age were thus transplanted on the Quito Farm, with a loss of only 

 six trees. When the sap has become corrupted it is necessary to 

 take off one of the primary or mother branches in order to check 

 the tendency to make only wood. When the trees have been dam- 

 aged by the proximity of others prejudicial to them, such as the pfne 

 or the cork oak (the latter breeds a worm, about its roots which is 

 fatal to the olive ) the weakly parts will have to be severely pruned. 

 When they are attacked by an infinity of little shell like warts 

 which spread up from the trunk to the lower branches, there is no 

 remedy but to cut the tree down to the crotch and allow it to begin 

 over again. But it must not be forgotten that this treatment is an 

 extreme measure, and only to be availed of when all others have 

 failed. 



The primary, or mother branches of an olive, are its arms, and 

 are not to be lopped off without a good and sufficient reason. Al- 

 though the tree may grow and flourish for many years, its new branch- 

 es never will have the strength and exuberence of their predecessors. 



That one of these branches appears to be ailing, is not cause 

 enough to cut it off. Manuring and cultivating about the tree may 

 give it all that it needs. Watch it till spring, and then if it fails to 

 flower, it had better be condemned. 



Thus we have seen that in pruning there are three different de- 

 grees, the cleaning, or light pruning ; the pruning itself, and the 



