Page:A Practical Treatise on Olive Culture, Oil Making and Olive Pickling.djvu/23

 which carries with it the mutilation of the trunk of a tree is possible only in the countries where old trees are to be found, while from young trees, of which there will soon be plenty in California, cuttings can be easily procured through the ordinary process of pruning, which thus proves beneficial to them instead of being a source of mutilation. This alone should be a sufficient reason for the general adoption in this country of so rational a mode of propagation.

As much as possible a dry soil should be selected for an olive nursery. Riondet tells us that in irrigable lands a finer growth may be obtained, but when those young trees are transplanted to a dry soil, they suffer much, and it takes them several years before they get settled in their new place. An olive tree, weaker, raised in dry land, will always develop with more vigor than another one stronger coming from an irrigated soil.

The young plants in nursery, says Du Breuil, should be protected from drought only through the means of hoeings practiced during the summer, and he adds that when taking them from the nurseries they will accommodate themselves Very much better to the burning soils where they will be planted than if they had been subjected to irrigation during their tender youth.

However, this practice which is recommended for the south of France and Italy where spring showers and summer storms are quite frequent and are generally sufficient to bring to those