OLIVE. 
45 
just at the proper degree of ripeness; for the ex- 
treme either way will be prejudicial to the oil. The 
leaves must likewise be carefully separated, or else 
they will communicate a disagreeable bitterness to 
the oil. When the situation is favourable, those 
species are cultivated which yield fine oils ; other- 
wise they cultivate such trees as bear a great quantity 
of fruit, from whence they extract the oil for the 
use of soaperies and lamps. 
When the olives are gathered, which is about 
the months of November and December, if they 
are put in heaps too thick, or left in that state too 
long, they will ferment and contract a bad smell ; 
they are therefore put as soon as possible into 
baskets, or into bags made of wool or hair, and 
pressed immediately, in order to extract the fine 
oil. The want of this activity in preparing the oil, 
is the reason why so little really fine, and free from 
any bad flavour, is to be procured. M. Duhamel is 
averse to the mixing of sound olives with those in 
which a fermentation has already begun, and more so 
with such as are putrified: in both cases the oil which 
is extracted is of a bad quality, and unfit for preserva- 
tion. In order to have the oil in its greatest purity, we 
must allow it to deposit its sediment, and then pour 
it off into another vessel. The oil extracted from 
the pulp only of olives, is the most perfect which 
can be obtained, and will keep for several years ; 
but that which is extracted from the kernel only, 
or from the nut, or from the whole olive ground in 
the common way in public mills, has always more 
