1 Ocr., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 373 
When of good quality, and especially when fresh, olive oil is of a pale- 
greenish colour, with a sweetish nutty flavour. Inferior oil is of a darker 
colour, being a yellowish or brownish green. 
So soon as all exudation of oil from the first pressing ceases, the screw is 
reversed, and the bags are removed and emptied. The pressed pulp being put 
carefully aside and the bags refilled, pressure is again applied, and the process 
repeated till the whole crushing has gone through the mill. 
The Mare, which has thus been once pressed, is then thoroughly separated 
and stirred up with boiling water, and the process of pressing renewed ; this 
time the pressure being increased, though still gradual and steady. This second 
oil is nearly as good as the first, but 
is apt to become rancid in time. The 
principal of the oil after this second process is skimmed off the water in the 
receivers ; but entire separation takes a long time, and when it is complete the 
process is reversed by the water being drawn off from below. 
Once more is the Mare subjected to treatment with boiling water, and it is 
at this stage that, when the stones were not crushed at the first milling, that 
ea is now gone through, and the last of the oil obtained. ‘This pressing is, 
1owever, regarded ay of inferior quality, and is kept carefully separate from the 
results of Nos. 1 and 2. 
The water which has been used in the several processes, and which still 
contains an admixture of oil, is conducted into large reservoirs generally con- 
structed underground. Here it is left for a considerable period, during which 
the mucilage, water, and oil thoroughly separate—the former falling to the 
bottom, while the latter rises to the top, whence it ig ultimately skimmed off, 
and applied to local uses of an inferior character, such as burning in lamps. 
There are yet processes for still further extraction of oil to the last fraction, 
which it is here unnecessary to describe. My object (says Mr. Bernays) is to 
encourage the establishment of oil-making as a new industry, and to show that 
some of the processes are simple, spe pertectly efficacious, and require so little 
money that the application of such a large word as “ capital” would be out of 
place. 
: After manufacture, the oil is finally deposited i 
facilitate the deposit of impurities which are still he 
light are both excluded, as they would tend to dec 
a few months the clear oil is racked off into fresh 
Peaeaees for the market, while the inferior is sol 
ubricating, or other such purposes. 
Decandolle states the quantity of oil produced by the olive at 50 per cent. 
of the gross weight. 
Sieuve tells us that 100 Ib. of olives yield 32 Ib. of oil, viz. :—21 from the 
pericarp, 4 from the kernel, and 7 from the shell. Others state it at 25 per 
cent. ; whilst from an inferior variety the yield is set down as low as i0 per 
cent. 
Calculating the yield per tree, it is extremely 
Tn the case of the olive, as with many other veget 
laid down. Its productiveness is governed by 
and age. 
The quantity of the crop is also liable to be affect 
drought, lateness of season, hailstorms, gales of wind, and seasons unusually 
rife with destructive insects; but after wlowing for all possible draw- 
backs, in olive countries, the tree is considered to yield one of the most profitable 
crops known to agriculture. 
The lowest average yield that I can find is 1 
estates the average is given at from 1} to 2 gallons per tree. The yield of 
individual trees is given at from 12 to 20 gallons, while one tree of renown is 
stated to have yielded as much as 55 gallons, and another 3 ewt. of oil. 
Taking the lowest average—viz., 1 gallon to the tree, and 60 trees to the 
acre, the produce at 8s. per gallon*—the Brisbane market value of the imported 
n stone jars or in tanks, to 
Id in suspension. Air and 
omposition and rancidity. In 
jars for stock, or into other 
d for soap-making, lighting, 
difficult to give an average. 
able products, no rule can be 
variety, climate, soil, culture, 
ed by extremes of wet or 
gallon per tree, while on other 
a * Olive oil produced at St. Helena, in August, sold at from 12s, to Lis. per gallon,—Ed, 
AS, : 
