THE FLOWERS AND FE-UITS OF SCRIPTURE. 
69 
1820 an ancient olive, which, unless the docu- 
ments were pui'posely falsified, stood as a 
boundary between two possessions even before 
the Christian era, and in tlie second century 
was looked on as very ancient. 
The Turks being sensible of the worth of 
olives and olive oil, the tree continues to be 
extensively cultivated, and Palestine may 
still be called a land of olives. To tliis the 
longevity of the tree, and its character of 
springing up from the rootstock, may in some 
degree have contributed. 
There must have been an enormous home 
consumption of olive oil in ancient Judea, 
from the substitution of vegetable oil for 
animal fat as an article of diet, and its employ- 
ment also in the sacred ceremonies for burning 
in lamps, but yet the produce was so great as 
to leave a large surplus for exportation. Thus 
Solomon gave 20,000 baths of oil annually 
to the Tyrian cedar hewers in Lebanon, and, 
as it would seem, an equal quantity also to 
the king of Tyre. The Jews, moreover, 
traded with their oil to the great mart of 
Tyre ; and even sent it to Egypt. (Ezek. 
xxvii. 17; Hosea xii. 1.) The branches of 
the olive tree were also used by the Jews at 
the feast of tabernacles. 
Eliphaz the Temanite, speaking of the 
wicked man, says, (Job xv. 33,) he "shall 
cast off his flower as the olive." This seems 
to be the principal contingency to which the 
cultivator of olives is liable. If the blossoms 
are cast off there can be no fruit ; and it has 
been mentioned by travellers that the blossoms 
of the olive are sometimes cut off by blasting 
north or north-east winds. Dr. Chandler, in 
his Travels in Greece, observes : " The crops 
had failed five years successively when we 
arrived ; the cause assigned was a northerly 
wind, called Greco-Tramontane, which de- 
stroyed the flowers. The fruit is set in about 
a fortnight, when the apprehension from this 
unpropitious quarter ceases. The Idoom in 
the following year was unhurt, and we had 
the pleasure of leaving the Athenians happy 
in the prospect of a plentiful harvest." This 
early blight, the crop was subject to in Judea. 
Like tlie fig, the olive tree furnishes a suc- 
cessional crop. The first are mature about 
August, and the other in October or Novem- 
ber. The first crop, consisting of fully ripe 
fruit, is allowed to drop from the trees on 
mats spread out beneath. The later crop is 
bt^aten from the trees with long rods, and 
caught in the same manner. Some nicety is 
required in getting the crops, for if the fruit 
are over ripe, the oil has an unguinous taste, 
and if they are unripe they impart to it an 
intolerable bitterness. We read in the Bible 
of the beating of olive trees (Deut. xxiv. 20,) 
and of the shaking of olive trees, (Isa. xvii. 
6; xxiv. 13.) "When thou beatest thine 
olive tree, thou shall not go over the boughs 
again ; it shall be for the stranger, for the 
fathei-less, and the widow." " Two or three 
berries in the top of the utmost bough, four 
or five in the outmost fruitful branches there- 
of." " As the shaking of an olive tree, and 
as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is 
done." It seems, therefore, to have been the 
practice of the Jews, to beat down the bulk 
of the crop, leaving the residue for the poor ; 
and a similar beating process is still practised 
in Italy. It has been suggested that the trees 
having been once beaten in taking the crop, 
were not allowed by the proprietors to be 
beaten by " gleaners," who had therefore to 
wait until the unripe fruit, of which most of 
those left behind consisted, attained suflRcient 
maturity to fall when the trees were shaken. 
There appears to have been three methods 
anciently in use of expressing the oil from the 
fruit. Probably the most ancient mode was 
to squeeze the fruit with the hand, and by 
this method, though it caused much waste, 
the purest oil was produced. The olives were 
trodden as grapes ; thus the prophet Micah 
says, " Thou shalt tread the olives, but thou 
shalt not anoint thee w^ith oil." (Mic. vi. 15.) 
It appears also from the prophet Joel, that an 
oil press was sometimes employed : " The fats 
shall overflow with wine and oil :" "the press 
is full ; the fats overflow." (Joel ii. 24 ; iii. 
13.) In France and Italy, Avhere the best 
oil is produced, the oil is drawn from the 
fruit, by means of presses or mills, as soon as 
they are gathered. Care is taken that the 
mill-stones are set so far apart as not to crush 
the nuts of the olives. The pulp thus pre- 
pared is put in bags made of rushes, and 
moderately pressed, and thus the best or 
virgin oil is obtained. The mass is then 
broken, moistened with water, and returned 
to the press, out of which flows a mixture of 
oil and water which spontaneously separate ; 
thus a second oil of good quality and fit for 
table is obtained. The mass is again broken, 
soaked, and fermented in large cisterns, and 
then pressed, and thus a third oil valuable to 
the soap-boiler and in other manufactures is 
obtained. The best oil comes from Leghorn. 
Pickled olives are the unripe fruit steeped 
in water to which quick-lime or some alkaline 
substance has been added. They are after- 
wards soaked in pure water, and then bottled 
in salt and water, with or without an aromatic. 
They are supposed to excite appetite and pro- 
mote digestion. In some parts of Provence, 
after the olives have been some time in the 
brine, they remove them, take out the kernel, 
and put a caper in its place ; these they 
preserve in excellent oil, and thus prepared, 
they are said to strongly stimulate the appetite. 
