1 May, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 377 
those which are left are as symmetrical as possible to ensure a handsome top to 
the tree. Boughs can, of course, be pruned and trained into their places if 
necessary. It 1s better also to remove roots which are too near the surface, as 
_they prevent the development of the lower roots, which are essential to the 
tree. In the fifth year pruning should be carried out. The dead knob above 
the grafts should be carefully sawn off obliquely with «a sharp saw, and the 
place covered over with the pitch composition given above to prevent the tree 
from bleeding. The top should then be carefully pruned, so as to secure a 
shapely tree. 
PROPS. 
As the tops will now be getting heavy, the trees require more support to 
save them from the wind which otherwise would displace the roots. Three | 
props should be put to the trunk of each tree, and at the point of contact the 
tree should be protected by a band of straw, so that the props may not chafe 
the trunk. It is also necessary, when winter comes on, to bank up the trees 
by making a trench round the roots, and throwing ‘the earth up against the 
stem. ‘This must be levelled again in the spring, leaving a circular trench on 
the upper side of the tree to collect any rain that may fall. 
From this time onward the pruning of the trees becomes very important, 
and should be attended to every year as soon as the crop is gathered. It must 
be remembered that the vertical shoots of an olive do not bear fruit, and that 
no shoot bears fruit in its first year, so that care must be taken to distinguish 
between the second-year shoots and those of the first year. Unless the trees 
are properly pruned, the fruit will be small, will give very little oil, and will 
only yield every other year, whereas with proper pruning the trees may be made 
to yield every season. 
PICKING. 
The fruit should be hand-picked, or allowed to fall from the tree on to a 
canvas or sacking spread beneath it. The boughs may then be shaken, but 
the tree should on no account be beaten, as this knocks it about and injures 
the shoots, which will, if left unharmed, bear fruit in the following season. 
The ege-shaped fungus which we have already mentioned as appearing on the 
roots of mature trees should immediately be suppressed upon young trees. 
They should all be caretully cut off as soon as they appear, as they take 
too much out of a growing tree. Local experience alone can decide the 
best methods for a particular locality, but it may be accepted as a principle 
that vertical shoots may be taken off, all dead wood removed, and branches 
which have borne much in the preceding year cut back to allow more nutri- 
ment to pass to the others. ‘Too many buds should not be allowed on any 
branches. 
ENEMIES OF THE OLIVE. 
Like other fruit trees, the olive has many enemies. Besides the birds we 
have mentioned, who occasionally atone for their thefts by producing what we 
are pleased to call “ self-sown oleasters,” there are numerous insects which 
attack the fruit, the wood, and the leaves. 
DACUS OLE. 
The most dreaded of these is a small fly called the Dacus olee, whichis about 
half the size of a common house fly. It has a yellow head and green eyes, and 
an ashy-grey back with gossamer wings. The female has a spur like a wasp, 
with which she punctures the frait and deposits an egg in the lesion. It is 
calculated that a single fly will thus destroy 300 or 400 olives. These eggs 
develop into larvee, which completely tunnel the olive, leaving nothing but the 
outer shell and the stone. In about a fortnight they assume the chrysalis 
stage, and about ten days after that the perfect fly issues. This, it will be seen, 
displays an alarming fecundity combined with an extraordinary rapidity of 
reproduction, and in favourable seasons terrible damage is done. The only 
known remedy is to gather the fruit early, and by crushing it at once to 
destroy the larvee. 
