Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/822

Rh 762 OLIVE to the first years of the empire, or even to the days of republican Rome ; but the age of such ancient trees is always doubtful during growth, and their identity with old descriptions still more difficult to establish. The tree in cultivation rarely exceeds 30 feet in height, and in France and Italy is generally confined to much more limited dimensions by frequent pruning. The wood, of a yellow or light greenish -brown hue, is often finely veined with a darker tint, and, being very hard and close- grained, is valued by the cabinetmaker and ornamental turner. The olive is propagated in various ways, but cuttings or layers are generally preferred ; the tree roots in favour able soil almost as easily as the willow, and throws up suckers from the stump when cut down. Branches of various thickness are cut into lengths of several feet each, and, planted rather deeply in manured ground, soon vegetate ; shorter pieces are sometimes laid horizontally in shallow trenches, when, covered with a few inches of soil, they rapidly throw up sucker-like shoots. In Greece and the islands grafting the cultivated tree on the oleaster is a common practice. In Italy embryonic buds, which form small swellings on the stems, are carefully excised and planted beneath the surface, where they grow readily, these &quot;uovoli&quot; soon forming a vigorous shoot. Occasionally the larger boughs are inarched, and young trees thus soon obtained. The olive is also sometimes raised from seed, the oily pericarp being first softened by slight rotting, or soaking in hot water or in an alkaline solution, to facili tate germination. The olives in the East often receive little attention from the husbandman, the branches being allowed to grow freely and without curtailment by the pruning-knif e ; water, however, must be supplied in long droughts to ensure a crop ; with this neglectful culture the trees bear abundantly only at intervals of three or four years ; thus, although wild growth is favourable to the picturesque aspect of the plantation, it is not to be recommended on economic grounds. Where the olive is carefully cultivated, as in Languedoc and Provence, it is planted in rows at regular intervals, the distance between the trees varying in different &quot; olivettes,&quot; accord ing to the variety grown. Careful pruning is practised, the object being to preserve the flower -bearing shoots of the preceding year, while keeping the head of the tree low, so as to allow the easy gathering of the fruit; a dome or rounded form is generally the aim of the pruner. The spaces between the trees are occasionally manured with rotten dung, or other nitrogenous matter ; in France woollen rags are in high esteem for this purpose. Various annual crops are sometimes raised between the rows, and in Calabria wheat even is grown in this way ; but the trees are better without any intermediate cropping. Latterly a dwarf variety, very prolific, and with green fruit, has come into favour in certain localities, especially in America, where it is said to have produced a crop two or three seasons after planting. The ordinary kinds do not become profitable to the grower until from five to seven years after the cuttings are placed in the olive- ground. Apart from occasional damage by weather or organic foes, the olive crop is somewhat precarious even with the most careful cultivation, and the large untended trees so often seen in Spain and Italy do not yield that certain income to the peasant proprietor that some authors have attributed to them ; the crop from these old trees is often enormous, but they seldom bear well two years in succession, and in many instances a luxuriant harvest can only be reckoned upon every sixth or seventh season. The fruit when ripe is, by the careful grower, picked by hand and deposited in cloths or baskets for conveyance to the mill; but in many parts of Spain and Greece, and generally in Asia, the olives are beaten down by polos, or by shaking the boughs, or even allowed to drop naturally, often lying on the ground until the convenience of the owner admits of their removal ; much of the inferior oil owes its bad quality to the carelessness of the proprietor of the trees. In southern Europe the olive harvest is in the winter months, continuing for several weeks ; but the time varies in each country, and also with the season and the kinds cultivated. The amount of oil contained in the fruit differs much in the various sorts ; the pericarp usually yields from 60 to 70 per cent. The ancient agriculturists believed that the olive would not succeed if planted more than a few leagues from the sea (Theophrastus gives 300 stadia as the limit), but modern experience does not confirm the idea, and, though showing a preference for the coast, it has long been grown far inland. A calcareous soil, however dry or poor, seems best adapted to its healthy development, though the tree will grow in any light soil, and even on clay if well drained ; but, as remarked by Pliny, the plant is more liable to disease on rich soils, and the oil is inferior to the produce of the poorer and more rocky ground the species naturally affects. The olive suffers greatly in some years from the attacks of various enemies. A fungoid growth has at times infested the trees for several successive seasons, to the great damage of the plantations. A species of coccus, C. oleee, attaches itself to the shoots, and certain lepidopterous caterpillars feed on the leaves, while the &quot; olive-fly&quot; attacks the fruit. In France the olivettes suffer occasionally from frost ; in the early part of the last century many trees were cut to the ground by a winter of exceptional severity. Gales and long-continued rains during the gathering season also cause mischief. The unripe fruit of the olive is largely used in modern as in ancient times as an article of dessert, to enhance the flavour of wine, and to renew the sensitiveness of the palate for other viands. For this purpose the fruit is picked while green, soaked for a few hours in an alkaline ley, washed well in clean water, and then placed in bottles or jars filled with brine ; the Romans added amurca to the salt to increase the bitter flavour of the olives, and at the present day spices are sometimes used. The leaves and bark of the tree are employed in the south, as a tonic medicine, in intermittent fever. A resinous matter called &quot;olive gum,&quot; or Lucca gum, formed by the exuding juice in hot seasons, was an ciently in medical esteem, and in modern Italy is used as a perfume. In England the olive is not hardy, though in the southern counties it will stand ordinary winters with only the protection of a wall, and will bear fruit in such situa tions ; but the leaves are generally shed in the autumn, and the olives rarely ripen. The genus Olea includes several other species of some economic importance. The olive of America, 0. americana, a rather small tree, growing in the southern parts of the United States, with broadly -lanceolate leaves and com pound racemes of small white fragrant flowers, is remark able for the extreme hardness of its wood, which, resist ing ordinary tools, is called devil-wood by the southern lumberers and squatters. 0. paniculata is a larger tree, attaining a height of 50 or 60 feet in the forests of Queensland, and yielding a hard and tough timber. The yet harder wood of 0. laurifolia, an inhabitant of Natal, is the black ironwood of the South African colonist. The white or yellowish sweet-scented flowers of 0. fragrans, a Chinese species, are employed to communicate their aroma to some of the finer teas ; the oblong serrated leaves are said to be used for the adulteration of inferior kinds. Some other species of olive furnish hard and close-grained wood, but are not yet of much general interest