98 
OLIVE TREE. 
man gathers fruit from an Olive of his own planting, must be admitted 
with the abatements of poetry. 
A second method of forming a nursery, which has been successfully 
adopted near Toulon, is by transplanting the young Wild Olives. 
The ancients relied principally upon propagation by slips, and this easy 
and expeditious mode is still generally followed in Spain. A smooth, 
thriving sprout or branch, 1 or 2 inches in diameter, is cut into pieces 12 
or 15 inches long, which are carefully set, wdthoüt wounding the bark, in 
ground prepared as for the seed. They are placed at the distance of 3 feet 
and at such a depth that 3 inches only appear above the surface. To 
encourage the formation of roots, the larger end, which is committed to the 
earth, should be smeared with a composition of mould and animal manure, 
and the end which is exposed to the air should be protected by a covering 
of clay. Cuttings of the roots, also, buried in an inclined position in 
trenches 4 inches deep, will sprout in the course of the year. A few 
months later the feebler stocks are plucked up, and the more vigorous ones 
are left at the distance of 3 feet. Another easy resource is found in the 
shoots that spring up round the base of an old Olive, or from roots laid 
bare and wounded for this purpose. 
It is necessary, in every case, to ascertain the point at which the original 
stock was grafted. The offspring is invariably identical in its nature with 
that part of the parent tree from which it was separated ; it requires graft- 
ing, therefore, if it was detached from a point below the insertion of the 
graft, or from a tree which had not submitted to this process. 
All these operations are performed at the close of winter or the opening 
of spring. The length of time which the young plants should remain in 
the nursery varies with their size and strength, but it rarely exceeds four 
or five years. During this period the ground should be kept mellow and 
clean, and occasionally watered in the summer, if the season is dry. But 
this indulgence should not be prodigally bestowed. Vegetable, as well as 
animal and moral life is susceptible of habitude. For this reason it is 
also, an important precept in the formation of nurseries, to select a soil 
analagous to that in which the trees are to reside. If the young plant is 
lavishly supplied with nutricious juices, its pores become distended, its 
fibre gross, and its vegetation luxuriant. Superfluous enjoyments easily 
become necessaries of life : hence, when it is removed to a different scene, 
and condemned to struggle for existence in an ungrateful soil, it loses 
heart and perishes where it might have been long-lived and fruitful, if its 
temperament had been, hardened by early privation. 
When the nurslings have arrived at a proper age, the next step is to 
transplant them to the Olive-yard. The task of preparing the ground for 
their reception should be begun immediately after the harvest. Holes or 
trenches, at least 3 feet in width, are dug and left mouldering till the close 
