Page:A Practical Treatise on Olive Culture, Oil Making and Olive Pickling.djvu/25

 the burning heat of the summer, especially in California, where rains are almost unknown from June to October; it would hardly be penetrated by the air and would not receive the beneficial effects of the atmospheric influences.

The most favorable season for transplanting to permanent sites those small one-year old rooted cuttings is dependent on the location selected. If the soil is light and dry, it should be done before winter; if heavy and damp, in the spring.

It is a fact generally admitted that in dry soils it is important to make plantations of rooted cuttings in autumn, their start being then much more assured; while in the wet lands, where the roots could not spread easily, it is preferable to wait until spring; for, the facility with which those soils retain the water maintains a permanent state of humidity which produces rot in the roots and brings about symptons of decay soon followed by he death of the plant. When on the contrary the planting is done in the fall in a dry and light soil, the water which it receives during the winter rains percolates freely to the lower stratum, numerous ramifications of the roots, which under our exceptional climate know nearly no repose, absorb it through all their pores and young trees develop with an astonishing vigor, gaining during a mild winter, as is so in the case here, from two to three months on the vegetation of the principal olive bearing zones of Europe, where winters are generally longer