Page:A Practical Treatise on Olive Culture, Oil Making and Olive Pickling.djvu/35



It should not be understood by the numerous quotations given in preceding chapters that the cultivation of the olive tree is impossible or will give but meagre results in a rich soil, well cultivated and abundantly manured. Such a soil, well selected, and provided it is properly drained, will give a good yield, which will be, as in all other cultures, the direct result of the good care that will be given to the tree. We should, however, bear in mind that it has been said time and time over by the best authorities on the subject, and especially by Michaux, that the quality of the fruit of the olive is essentially affected by that of the soil, and that while it succeeds in good loam capable of bearing wheat and vines, in fat lands it yields oil of an inferior flavor and becomes laden with a barren exuberance of leaves and branches.

Moreover, those rich valley lands are not always within the means of all parties who desire to avail themselves of the numerous advantages that the culture of the olive tree presents. Those