Chap. 3.] 
OLIYE OIL. 
279 
recent plan, the pulp is pnt in a stick strainer, with narrow 
spikes and interstices.^* The riper the berrj^, the more unctu- 
ous the juice, and the less agreeable the taste. To obtain a 
result both abundant and of excellent flavour, the best time to 
gather it is when the berry is just on the point of turning 
black. In this state it is called druppa" by us, by the 
Greeks, drypetis.'* 
In addition to these distinctions, it is of importance to 
observe whether the berry ripens in the press or while on the 
branch ; whether the tre€ has been watered, or whether the 
fruit has been nurtured soielj^ by its own juices, and has 
imbibed nothing else but the dews of heaven. 
CHAP. 3. (2.) OLIVE OIL I THE COUNTEIES IN WHICH IT IS 
PEOLUCED, AI^D ITS VAHIOUS QUALITIES. 
It is not with olive oil as it is with wine, for by age it ac- 
quires a bad flavour, and at the end of a year it is already 
old. This, if rightly understood, is a wise provision on the 
part of JS'ature: wine, which is only produced for the drunkard, 
she has seen no necessity for us to use when new ; indeed, 
by the fine flavour which it acquires with age, she ratl-er 
invites us to keep it ; but, on the other hand, she has not willed 
that we should be thus sparing of oil, and so has rendered its 
use common and universal by the very necessity there is of using 
it while fresh. 
In the production of this blessing as well," Italy holds the 
highest rank among all countries, and more particularly the 
territory of Yenafrum,^^ that part of it in especial which 
produces the Licinian oil ; the qualities of which have conferred 
upon the Licinian olive th? very highest renown. It is our 
1* " Exilibiis regulis." A kind of wooden strainer, apparently invented 
to supersede the wicker, or basket strainer. 
It is more insipid the riper the fruit, and the less odorous. 
By absorbing the oxygen of the air. It may be preserved two or 
three years even, in vessels hermetically closed. The oil of France keeps 
better than any other. 
As well as the grape. 
In consequence of the faulty mode of manufacture, the oil of Italy is 
now inferior to that of France. The oil of Aix is particularly esteemed. 
1^ In Campania. See B. xvii. c. 3. Horace and Martial speak in 
praise of the Venafran olive. Ilardouin suggests that Licinius Crassus 
may have introduced the Licinian olive. 
