Page:A Practical Treatise on Olive Culture, Oil Making and Olive Pickling.djvu/15



The olive tree is reproduced in different ways: by the seed, by the simple cutting, by the ramified cutting, by suckers that shoot from the trunk, and by the woody excrescences which form on the bark of the upper roots of old trees.

Let us begin with the reproduction by the seed. 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. For all such reasons this is the mode most generally in use in the olive regions of Europe.

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