Page:The Olive Its Culture in Theory and Practice.djvu/36

30 The jealousy of the European olive countries has already been noticed and the writer is strongly inclined to think that the olive recommended to Mr. Redding and imported into this State by him as the Picholine, may be one of the various forms of the wild olive. (See Plate II.) Note the similarity of growth, the size of the berry and the stone, and of its general characteristics; its extreme fecundity, its low stature and its hardiness in all situations. Now on the other hand, we know that the real Picholine, in a favorable soil, becomes a very large tree, with its branches all well set on and growing regularly, and not straggling out in the eccentric manner of the wild olive. Without discussing this point farther and granting that the olive generally known in California as the Picholine is all its advocates claim it to be, and that it is not the wild olive, it seems so near akin to it that it is utterly useless to cultivate it for the production of oil for it will not repay one for the care and space in the orchard given to it. The same quantity of oil is pressed from one Mission olive that is contained in five Picholines, one dried Mission olive weighing 2 grams and five dried Picholines, weighing 2 grams, showing plainly the difference of twenty per cent. in favor of the Mission olive and exactly the same quantity of oil being produced from each. Hence, the accepted Picholine olive will give only eight per cent. of oil, and that of an inferior quality, being largely made up from the essential oil contained in the stones. But this olive through its extreme rusticity and close relationship to the wild olive is, without doubt, the very best possible stock upon which to graft, and so, although the introduction of this plant may somewhat retard olive culture in this State, it may eventually prove a benefit.

The Nevadillo Blanco or Doncel is the Olea precox of Gouan. It is a tree of good appearance with the branches well set on and bowed over with the weight of the fruit which it generally bears. It is sensitive to cold and demands sheltered situations. It gives