18S 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
THE OLIVE. 
ittjessKs. Editors —Dr. Olin, describing the soil and 
productions of Palestine, speaks thus of the olive: 
“ But this is the proper region for the olive and the 
vine. Anciently, these hills were covered with orchards 
of fruit trees and vineyards, and the world does not, pro¬ 
bably, produce finer grapes, figs and olives, than are an¬ 
nually gathered about Hebron and Bethlehem. One acre 
of the flinty surface of the Mount of Olives, carefully 
tended in olive trees, would yield more, through the ex¬ 
changes of commerce, towards human subsistence, than 
a much larger tract of the richest Ohio bottom tilled in 
corn. Most persons know little of the variety and im¬ 
portance of the uses to which the fruit of the olive is ap¬ 
plied in the Eastern nations and in some of the southern 
countries of Europe. Large quantities of the berries are 
used by the inhabitants, and exported as food; but the 
principal value of the olive consists in the delicious oil 
that is extracted from its fruit. This is used upon the ta¬ 
ble and in cookery, as the substitute for both butter and 
lard. It is universally burned in lamps, and instead of 
candles, which are nearly unknown in the east. It is the 
principal material used in making soap.”— Olin's Trav¬ 
els, Vol. II. p. 430. 
Mr. Jefferson, in 1787, wrote as follows: 
“ The olive is a tree the least known in America, and 
yet the most worthy of being known. Of all the gifts 
of Heaven to man, it is next to the most precious, if it be 
not the most precious. Perhaps it may claim a prefer¬ 
ence even to bread, because there is such an infinitude 
of vegetables which it renders a proper and comfortable 
nourishment. In passing the Alps, at the Col de Tende, 
where there are mere masses of rock, wherever there 
happens to be a little soil, there are a number of olive 
trees, and a village supported by them. Take away these 
trees, and the same ground in corn, would not support a 
single family. A pound of oil, which can be bought for 
three or four pence sterling, is equivalent to many 
pounds of flesh, by the quantity of vegetables it will pre¬ 
pare and render fit and comfortable food. Without this 
tree, the country of Provence and the territory of Genoa 
would not support one-half, perhaps not one-third, their 
present inhabitants. The nature of the soil is of little 
consequence, if it be dry.” 
“In Italy, I am told, they have trees of two hundred 
years old. They afford an easy and constant employ¬ 
ment through the year, and require so little nourishment, 
that if the soil be fit for any other production, it may be 
cultivated among the olive trees without injuring them.” 
“Notwithstanding the great quantities of oil made 
in France, they have not enough for their own con¬ 
sumption, and therefore import from other countries. 
This is an article, the consumption of which will 
always keep pace with its production. Raise it, and 
it begets its own demand. Cover the southern states 
with it, and every man will become a consumer of 
oil, within whose reach it can be brought, in point of 
price. If the memory of those persons is held in 
great respect in South Carolina, who introduced there 
the culture of rice, a plant which sows life and death 
with almost equal hand, what obligations would be due 
to him who should introduce (he olive tree, and set the 
example of its culture!”— Mr. Jefferson's letter to Thomas 
Drayton , dated Paris, July 30, 1787. 
“I am persuaded there are many parts of our lower 
country where the olive tree might be raised, which is 
assuredly the richest gift of Heaven. I can scarcely ex¬ 
cept bread. I see this tree supporting thousands among 
the Alps, where there is not soil enough to make bread 
for a single familv.”— Mr. Jefferson's letter to Mr. Wythe, 
dated Paris, Sept. 16, 1787. 
Here is surely ample testimony as to the estimation in 
which the olive was held in modern times, by those ac¬ 
quainted with its uses. If evidence is wanting as to the 
estimation in which the ancients held it, we have only to 
refer to the freQuent mention made of it in the historical 
parts of the Bible, and the beautiful allusions to it so fre¬ 
quent by the Hebrew poets—to the beautiful fictions 
among the Greeks about its origin, one of which is men¬ 
tioned by Apollodorus Atheniensis , who tells us how, in 
the reign of Cecrops, Neptune, smiting the earth with his 
trident, made the sea flow at his feet; how Minerva, de¬ 
termined to outdo his marine godship in beneficence, 
called on Cecrops to bear witness to what she was going 
to do, and made an olive tree spring from the ground; 
how these divinities quarreled about the value of their 
respective gifts to Attica, and Jupiter, to settle it, appoint¬ 
ed twelve gods to determine the question, which august 
jury of divinities gave a verdict in favor of Minerva; 
and to the rank assigned to it by Columella among the 
Romans, as being the first among trees. Yet in the 
whole of the United States, I know of but two or three 
instances, in which attempts have been made to introduce 
the culture of this tree. Long ago, indeed, the colony of 
Greeks settled at New Smyrna, in E. Florida had planted 
the olive, and only sixty years ago there were large trees 
marking the site of that settlement. Recently, Mr. Coop¬ 
er of St. Simons, and Mr. Spalding, of Sapelo, Georgia, 
have tried its cultivation, I think, with success; and in 
the garden of Mr. Rose at Macon, I saw recently a flour¬ 
ishing tree which had thus far withstood the winters 
there. I suppose the general impression that it would 
not endure, without injury, the cold of our winters, has 
deterred cultivators from turning their attention to it; as 
it is known that the severe winter of 1807 destroyed a 
large part of the olive trees in the south of France; and 
as it is known too, that Humboldt, in his essay on the 
geographical distribution of plants had set down the olive 
as requiring a climate with a mean temperature of 57 
deg. 17 m. the greatest cold being 41 deg. 5 m. Mr. 
Jefferson, however, says that when killed by frost, it will 
spring up again from the roots; so also says Mr. Hill- 
house; and such is the experience of Mr. Spalding and 
Mr. Cooper. If the varieties cultivated in France were 
the only ones to be had, even their comparative tender¬ 
ness ought not to be an objection to attempting their cul¬ 
tivation here. For all experience shows, and philoso¬ 
phy leaches, that plants of temperate climates, in time, 
by frequent reproduction from seed, adapt themselves to 
colder climates, in which, at first, they invariably per¬ 
ished. The Melia Azedarach furnishes a familiar illus¬ 
tration of this fact; and applying to the well known cha¬ 
racteristics of the olive tree, the first and second of the 
laws of temperature, with respect to its influence on ve¬ 
getation, as laid down by M. De Candolle, we may con¬ 
fidently conclude therefrom that it will adapt itself to 
our climate even sooner than the Melia. 
Happily, however, there are varieties to which this 
objection cannot be made. “ In the southern part of the 
Crimea, which lies between the latitude of 44 deg. and 
46 deg. two varieties of olives have been discovered, 
which have existed there for centuries. They yield 
great crops and resist the frost.” 
“ These olives have been cultivated in the Royal Im¬ 
perial Garden of Nikita, to preserve and multiply the spe¬ 
cies, with plants which had been received from Provence, 
and have endured the rigorous winters of 1825 and 1826, 
while those of Provence, in the same exposure, perished 
even to the root. Measures have been recently taken in 
France for the introduction into that country of these two 
precious varieties, which are capable of resisting ten or 
twelve degrees of cold below the zero of Reaumur's ther¬ 
mometer—equal to five degrees above the zero of Fahren- 
heit .”— Kenrick's Amer. Orcliardist, 3d ed. p. 333. 
The nurserymen of the United States incur great ex¬ 
penses in introducing such exotics as the Cedar of Leba¬ 
non, Garoga elyptica, Paulownia imperialis, Pinus de- 
odara, &c. &c.:—all of which are very beautiful trees; 
but when they are said to be very beautiful and very 
rare, all is said of them that can be, with truth, except 
that they are very expensive. It is true that purchasers 
are found who are willing.to pay high prices for them; 
and in this, those who import them, find their remunera¬ 
tion. By incurring an expense, not more, it is believed, 
than has been incurred in the introduction of any one of 
the exotics above named, the olive of Nikita may be in¬ 
troduced. And if it stand the rigor of our climate, as it 
does that of its native region, may we not hope to see it, 
in a few years, spreading over the southern States, adding 
to the comforts and the wealth of our people? Once in¬ 
troduced, its propagation is a matter so very simple, tha* 
