Page:A Practical Treatise on Olive Culture, Oil Making and Olive Pickling.djvu/46

 I judge it then more practical to confine my attention solely to the varieties already most generally known in California, that have been acclimatized here after many years of cultivation, and I shall simply cite all that I have been able to learn of their respective merits, leaving it to more daring writers to recommend better ones among the great list of those known in all the olive regions of Europe, Asia and Africa. Let any one who will feel so inclined experiment with some of these latter ones, as regards their adaptability to our soil and climate, and wait years and years before realizing whether or not they will give better products in greater abundance and in shorter time than those that are already known to us.

Why should it be different with the olive tree from what it is with the vine? Who ignores the fact that in the wine districts of Burgundy, of Champagne, of Bordeaux, and in other places, vineyards in immediate proximity to one another, cultivated in the very same manner, and planted with cuttings belonging to the same variety give wines of a different character; while one will be considered of an ordinary quality the other will rank among the most renowned. Will the combined influences of soil, climate and exposition, which are of great importance for the products of the vine, work in a less degree for those of the olive tree?

Moreover, while planting the varieties which