THE OLIVE 



135 



skin finally wrinkles and the color becomes a dull black. This is 

 the state in which it is popularly supposed to give the most oil, 

 which we have already shown to be a fallacy but even granting it to 

 be true, the quality is inferior, the flavor gross and the oil soon be- 

 comes rancid. An olive is fully ripe when on being squeezed be- 

 tween the thumb and finger the soft pulp show^s no white, but for 

 many reasons, as we have seen, it may be desirable to forestall this 

 period. 



No time can be set when an olive crop should be harvested. It 

 may vary by weeks from one season to another, and it is far better 

 on every account to anticipate, than to defer the harvest. The ber- 

 ries should be carefully gone- over and all leaves and dirt picked out ; 

 the former giving a bitter taste to the oil and the latter lessening 

 the quantity as well as lowering the quality. 



What will an olive orchard produce ? As we have seen, it is cus- 

 tomary in Spain in estimating the annual oil product of an orchard 

 to calculate that every six trees will give four gallons of oil. This 

 at first glance appears to be a very small yield, but it must be re- 

 membered that it is an estimate applied to the whole face of the 

 country, that olive trees are very numerous in Spain and many or- 

 chards are very old and in a poor state of cultivation. Also that it 

 is a general annual estimate independent of fluctuations from year 

 to year. 



A careful observation of the olive districts in Italy by Professor 

 Caruso, extending over many years, shows that the greatest produc- 

 tion is found in Sicily, but not the finest quality. The Sicilian 

 product runs as high as ninety gallons of oil to the acre, falling to 

 fifty in Liguria and the Neapolitan States, which would give a mean 

 of seventy gallons to the acre for the whole of Italy. 



Mr. Cooper makes the statement that on a 'piece of two acres i if 

 ground seven year old trees averaged one hundred and twenty-two 

 pounds of olives per tree. 



On the Quito Farm, Mission olive trees which were grown from 



