OLIYE OIL. 



531 



The following are the present market prices of olive oil in 

 Liverpool, (October, 1853,) and they are 40 per cent, higher than 

 a, few years ago : — Galipoli, per tun of 252 gallons, £68 ; Spanishj 

 £64 ; Levant, £60, French olives, in half barrels of two gallons, 

 are worth £8 to £4 ; Spanish, in two gallon kegs, 9s, to 10s. 



The preserved or pickled olives, so admired as an accorapani-- 

 ment to wine, are, as we have seen the green unripe fruit, 

 deprived of part of their bitterness by soaking them in water, 

 and then preserved in an aromatised solution of salt. 



The marc of olives after the oil has been expressed, indeed, the 

 refuse cake of all oil plants, is most valuable, either as mauure 

 or for feeding cattle. 



More than 29,000 acres are under culture with the olive in the 

 Austrian empire, Yenice, Dalmatia, Lombardy, Carinthia, and 

 Carniola. The climate of Dalmatia is highly suitable for the 

 olive, and the oil is better than that produced in most parts 

 of Italy. JSTearly 17,000 cwt. are annually obtained. 



In 1837 there were 11,526 acres of ground under cultivation 

 vdth olives in Southern Illyria, which yielded 261,800 gallons. 

 Olives and sumach form, the principal crops of the landholder. I 

 have not been able to get any recent correct statistics of the culture 

 and produce. The oil of Istria is considered equal to that of 

 Provence. The stones and refuse are used there for fuel. The olive 

 is also extensively cultivated in the Quarnero Islands, especially 

 Yeglia and Cherso, and in Corfu. There were in 1836, 219,339 

 acres under cultivation in the Ionian Islands, producing 113,219 

 barrels. The olive is gathered there in December. The average 

 price of the barrel of olive oil was^43s. 3d. Nearly two millions 

 of gallons of olive oil were exported, from Sicily in 1842. Naples 

 alone shipped five millions of gallons in 1839, and about 2,500 

 cwts. of oil is shipped annually fi'om Morocco. 35/USsia imports 

 about 500,000 poods (40 lbs, each) of olive oil annually. 



Provence oil, the produce of Aix, is the most esteemed. 

 Florence oil is the virgin oil expressed from the ripe fruit soon after 

 being gathered; it is imported in flasks surrounded by a kind of net- 

 work formed by the leaves of a monocotyledonous plant, and packed 

 in half chests ; it is that used at table under the nam.e of salad 

 oil. Lucca oil is imported in jars holding nineteen gallons each, 

 denoa oil is another fine kind. Galipoli oil forms the largest 

 portion of the olive oil brought to England, it is imported in casks. 

 Apulia and Calabria are the provinces of Naples most celebrated 

 for its production; the Apulian is the best. Sicily oil is of inferior 

 quality ; it is principally produced at Milazzo. Spanish oil is the 

 worst. The foot deposited by olive oil is" used for oiling machinery, 

 under the name of ' droppings of sw^eet oil.' " — ("Pereira's Materia 

 Medica.") 



The manufacture of olive oil in Spain has undergone very con= 

 siderable improvement during the last few years ; in j^articular, 

 the process for expressing the oil has been rendered more rapid 

 and effectual by the introduction of the hydraulic press, and thus 



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