Olive tree

“ An olive tree, however, is no elegantly-growing or happily-coloured plant: straggling and dusky, one is forced to think of its produce, before one can be pleased with its merits, as in a deformed and ugly friend or companion.
The fogs now begin to fall pretty heavily in a morning, and rising about the middle of the day, leave the sun at liberty to exert his violence very powerfully. At night come forth the inhabitants, like dor-beetles at sunset on the coast of Sussex; then is their season to walk and chat, and sing and make love, and run about the street with a girl and a guittar ”

“ By adding to what precedes the incredible longevity of the olive tree and the immense consumption that is enjoyed by its product in all the civilized parts of the world, it will be readily understood why Columelle, Parmentier, and so many other famous agriculturists of past and present generations have called it "The first of all trees," and why the Italians, whose oil production exceeds that of any other country, have popularized the proverb that we should never tire repeating in California; "An olive plantation is a gold mine on the surface of the earth." ”

“ It is thus that we have been cradled in our younger days by such old sayings as: "An olive tree requires a wise man at its foot and a fool at its head;" and yet: "Make me poor and I will make thee rich;" from which we should infer that the tree is not so much in need of a costly stirring of the soil as it is of a careful pruning. ”

“ And when this second generation dies, the vitality of the root remains unimpaired; it throws up new shoots, and thus the life of the tree, like that of an ancient family, is indefinitely prolonged. The healthy olive tree, well fed on old rags and filth of every description, to which it is exceedingly partial, is very beautiful; but the beauty of the olive tree comes out in winter and early spring; when the deciduous trees are in leaf and brilliant green, it looks dull and dowdy. The olive flowers from April to June, and the fruit requires about six months to reach maturity. ”

“ And this is the reason why the olive should wave its branches over the other trees. For, like manna, it is a composite growth—a food, a fruit, a medicine. Always fruitful for a three-fold end; and never failing to be prolific, the trees bearing even for centuries.
And this is why the prophet Jotham reports the trees as first urging the olive to become king; and why he felt disappointed when the olive tree, in the beginning, refused, saying:
"Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?" ”

“ If the olive is pruned while the sap is rising, or still worse while in flower, each branch lopped off is a mortal stab, a wound through which the tree will loose its life blood. The sap will run heavily for some days, especially if they are damp and rainy, no time being afforded nature to close the outlets made with the pruning knife. ”

“ They have olive trees that are several centuries old and I have never seen such fine olive trees, not in California, or the plains of Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, or in Algeria or Tunis, and I have seen a good many olive trees in those countries. The olive tree is usually open, light and feathery. These in the Matmatas gulches are thick and black and rank.
For automatic cultivation and fertilization the plan of these primitive agriculturists is hard to beat. You put up your stone dam, and every time the gulley runs with water your crop is irrigated and fertilized. Can you beat it? ”

“ Has the tree or the nature of the soil changed since so that we may wisely disregard the testimony of the ancients? Is there anything to encourage us now to plant the olive tree on a richer or a different soil from that of its historic and traditional growth? ”

“ But when the olive tree is so robust by nature, so little scrupulous with regard to the choice of soil, enjoys such remarkable longevity, and has no excessive cold weather to fear in California, should it be raised by us from the seed instead of the cutting, when by the first mode we have to wait ten or twelve years for the product, as against four or five years by the second? ”

“ The olive is without question the most important tree on this coast; it prevails, and gives its colour to the country everywhere, except in the Montagnes des Maures and the Estérel. This is a most difficult tree for an artist to deal with, as it forms no masses of foliage; the small pointed leaves, dull green above, pale below, are so disposed that the foliage can be represented only by a series of pencil scratches. The trunk has a tendency to split into three or four parts in the ground. The vitality of the olive is remarkable. ”

“ If, in the cultivation of the olive tree, one were to be guided by the ancient beliefs that have come down to us through the ages, it would appear that when once planted it can be left to take care of itself. ”

“ The baking Mediterranean sun, whose relentless rays strike the parched land almost daily throughout the dry season, ripens fruit to perfection. The olive tree in particular demands little and yields much. ”

“ It seems thus established that the olive tree grown from the seed—which is the method most generally followed in the regions of Europe where the severe winters experienced occasionally make it desirable to render the tree as hardy as possible—has to be kept about seven years in nursery, and that at its transplantation it will experience a severe check which will be the natural result of meddling with its tap-root, as also of cutting back its top. ”

“ In passing over a long period, during which the praises of the olive tree have been sung in many tongues, we come to that great agriculturist, Parmentier, who during the last century was instrumental in the introduction of the potato into France. He says: "Of all the trees that the industry of men has made profitable, the olive tree deserves, without contradiction, the very first place." ”

“ Fertilization is indispensable to maintain the olive in a prosperous and fruitful condition. In rich soils it may for a certain time be omitted, but a continued neglect will diminish the productiveness; and fructification will become infrequent and unremunerative, in places where the tree is seldom or never fertilized. The lack of manure, is one of the causes of the plant becoming weak and sickly, and bearing heavily only at long intervals. To fertilize an olive tree well, it is sufficient to restore to the ground the refuse from the oil making and the ashes of the branches from pruning. ”

“ The olive tree requires a warm but temperate climate. It dreads equally extreme cold and excessive heat. In the north of Europe its progress is checked by cold weather; in the south and in Africa it is stopped by too much heat.
It does not grow well on low and wet lands, but it succeeds perfectly on mountains as well as on hills, and even amidst rocks, provided there is but little soil ”

“ It must be first understood that an olive tree so grown has to be grafted, as it would otherwise remain a wild tree, giving thus but a poor and small product. On the other hand it is well known that through the medium of a seed a tree is more vigorous, has a more lasting power, resists better cold weather, and is less delicate on the choice of soil than those grown from cuttings. ”

“ Every olive tree here is worth from fifteen to twenty piastres. The soil in which the trees grow is regularly ploughed, but nothing is sown between the trees, as it is found that any other vegetation diminishes the quantity of olives. The ground round the stem is covered to the height of two or three feet with earth, to prevent the sun from hurting the roots, and to give it the full benefit of the rains. We met with a few tents of Arabs Zereykat and El Hayb, who were pasturing their sheep upon the wild herbs by the road side. ”

“ To resume what has been already said in this chapter, I am decidedly in favor of the propagation of the olive tree in our climate by means of small cuttings, freshly cut at those periods of the year when the tree experiences a comparative repose, coming directly or originally from grafted trees, and raised in boxes or nurseries. When one season old these little rooted plants are ready to be transferred to permanent sites; there they will make a growth of from two to three feet a year ”

“ The olive tree prefers hills and elevated places, does not grow well in valley lands, low and wet, or where water stands. Its fruit corresponds to the soil where it is planted; in rich and moist land it gives a heavy and fatty oil; in the warm and dry soils the oil will be finer ”

“ Nut-trees, already lively with sap, project their white branches like gnarled fingers; everything else is green; winter lays no hand on this eternal spring. The thick lustrous leaf of the orange-tree rises from amid the foliage of the olive, and its golden apples glisten in the sun by thousands, interspersed with gleams of the pale lemon; often in these shady lanes do its glittering leaves flash out above the crest of the walls. This is the land of the orange. It grows even in miserable court-yards, alongside of dilapidated steps, spreading its luxuriant tops everywhere in the bright sunlight. ”

“ Second, all useless branches, over and above what the tree is able to carry, even though they should be the fruit branches of the following year, and all the "gluttons."
An olive tree that is heavily loaded down with branches or with fruit, is in a far from healthy state and by its appearance alone accuses the ignorance of its owner. If it has more branches than its strength is able to nourish, it becomes weakened, if more fruit, the latter appear poor, weazened, and half ripe. The last is damaging to the crop, but the first ruins the tree. ”

“ Though every two years is generally considered often enough to thoroughly prune an olive, there is abundant work for the knife each year after the crop is gathered, in taking off the dead, weak, and sickly branches, to the end that the sap may go to fruit, and not be obliged to keep useless wood in life. The tree so treated will be better able to resist frost, will bloom and yield more heavily, and its olives will contain more oil than do those of one that does not receive this care.
The olive is exceedingly subject to a species of dry rot, and unskillful pruning may actually cause it. ”

“ The olive is just as delicate to handle as the orange tree, so that the older it is and the more developed its root system, the more danger it presents in transplantation, when even the most careful precautions will not always secure success.
The small trees, when one year old, will develop with astonishing vigor when planted in their permanent sites; their tap-roots will sink rapidly; they will stand, without suffering, drought and hot weather, and not more than one in every two or three hundred will fail to grow. ”

“ Italy retains its old pre-eminence in olive cultivation; and, though its ancient Gallic province now excels it in the production of the finer oils, its fast-improving culture may restore the old prestige. The broad-leaved olive trees of Spain bear a larger fruit, but the pericarp is of more bitter flavour and the oil of ranker quality. The olive tree, even when free increase is unchecked by pruning, is of very slow growth ”

“ When a wound is made on the olive tree either by the breaking of a limb or by pruning, and is not at once shielded from contact with the air, a process of canker is initiated, provoked by the humidity found there, the action of insects and the spores of certain lichens or creepers. Trees improperly pruned are usually the ones attacked by the rot. To prevent it, an olive orchard should be placed on well drained soil and receive plenty of light. ”

“ I will then say in conclusion of this chapter: let us select such varieties of the olive tree as are universally acknowledged to rank among the best, both for pickling and oil-making; let us choose only temperate regions, so that our trees cannot be affected either by too much heat or too severe cold weather; let us plant them on the dry and sunny slopes of our hills where quicker production and finer quality will be obtained ”

“ The tree is often affected and even killed in the best oil regions of Europe by excessive cold spells, which are absolutely unknown in our parts of California, so that its culture, which offers great danger there, and keeps it from being more developed, presents an unquestionable safety in Napa Valley and such other sections where there is no danger of such extremes of cold or hot weather, both of which the olive tree fears to an equal degree. ”

“ This is the crying sin of the California fruit grower. In this way heretofore unheard of pests are evolved, trees are rendered sickly and stunted, and promising orchards become unprofitable. The olive is least able to bear the effects of overcrowding; sunlight and ventilation are absolute necessities to it. Fifty good trees to an acre is a better investment than a hundred poor ones. As the olive is so long in maturing, it is customary to utilize the space between the young trees by growing grapes and the short lived fruits, such as prunes and peaches, to give way finally to the mature tree. ”

“ The wild olive is a small tree or bush of rather straggling growth, with thorny branches and opposite oblong pointed leaves, dark greyish-green above and, in the young state, hoary beneath with whitish scales; the small white flowers, with four-cleft calyx and corolla, two stamens and bifid stigma, are borne on the last year’s wood, in racemes springing from the axils of the leaves; the drupaceous fruit is small in the wild plant, and the fleshy pericarp, which gives the cultivated olive its economic value, is hard and comparatively thin. ”