102 
OLIVE TREE. 
the knife. The little fruit that is borne in the year of repose is, also, of an 
inferior quality. Some other explanation must therefore be sought for, and 
a satisfactory one is indicated by Pliny in the continuance of the fruit upon 
the branches after its maturity: Hcerendo, enim , ultra suum tempus, absu- 
munt venientibus aUmentum. This cause, which is generally admitted by 
vegetable physiologists in France, has been developed by Olivier in a 
Memoir presented to thé Economical Society of Paris. Evergreen trees, 
and among them the Olive, put forth the young shoots that are to bloom 
the succeeding year, not in the spring, like trees with deciduous leaves, 
but at the close of summer ; and the buds are prepared during the autumn 
and the beginning of winter. If, then, the tree is overladen with fruit, this 
second growth is prevented, and the hopes of the following season are pre- 
cluded ; or, if the fruit is left too long upon the branches, it diverts the 
juices which should be employed in the preparation of the flower-buds. At 
Aix, where the olive-harvest takes place early in November, it is annual 
and uniform ; in Languedoc, Spain, Italy, etc., where it is delayed till 
December or January, it is alternate. The quality of the oil, also, 
depends upon gathering the fruit in the first stage of its maturity. It should 
be carefully plucked by hand, and the whole harvest completed, if possi- 
ble, in a single day. To concoct the mucilage and to allow a part of the 
water to evaporate, it is spread out, during two or three days, in beds 3 
inches deep. 
The oil-mill retains nearly its primitive form : it consists of a basin raised 
2 feet from the ground, with an upright beam in the middle, around which 
a massive mill-stone is turned by water or by a beast of burthen. The 
press is solidly constructed of wood or of cast iron, and is moved by a 
compound lever. The fruit, after being crushed to a paste, is put into 
sacks of coarse linen or of feather-grass, and submitted to the press. The 
virgin oil, which is first discharged, is the purest, and retains most sensibly 
the taste of the fruit. It is received in vessels half filled with water, from 
which it is taken off and set apart in earthen jars : to separate the vegetable, 
fibres and other impurities, it is repeatedly decanted. When the oil ceases 
to flow, the paste is taken out and broken up. As the sacks are returned 
to the press, boiling water is poured over them, and the pressure is renewed 
with redoubled force, till every particle of the oil and water is extracted. 
The mixture is left in a vat, from which the oil is taken off as it rises to 
the surface. This oil, though less highly perfumed than the first, is nearly 
as fine, and is usually mingled with it. The offals of the fruit are some- 
times submitted to a third process : in a basin into which a rill of pure 
water is admitted, they are ground anew, the skins and mucilaginous par- 
ticles floating on the surface are drawn off into reservoirs, and the shells 
are preserved for fuel. The utmost cleanliness is necessary in making the 
oil, which is finished in a day : with the nicest economy in the process, it 
