Page:The Olive Its Culture in Theory and Practice.djvu/42

34 wounds made by the pruning knife. It both ripens early and resists cold. The tree bears fruit at an early age and in great quantity, and gives a good quality of oil, but it needs water fertilizers and a loose, rich soil in order to get the best result from it.

Tablada says of this olive that in Spain it is generally used for pickling, but that it also gives a good oil and ripens early. It will resist even more cold than the Cornicabra, but is found in all parts of the country. It requires a fertile soil and good cultivation, lathoughalthough [sic] it will accommodate itself to less favorable circumstances, but remember, in return it will only produce accordingly. It will bear vigorous pruning.

The wild olive has twigs very robust, very long, contorted, rigid, little ramified and with angle at insertion of about eighty degrees. The leaves are obovate and very wide in proportion to length, are pointed, extending in a spine shape. The lower side is not as white as in the cultivated varieties. Even on wood that is scarcely a year old, it buds abundantly. It retains an enormous quantity of fruit, which hangs in bunches of three, four and five berries and which cling with tenacity to the stem. The berries mature late, and when fully ripe are black, and winey black. They are small (about .315 of a gramme), rather round and sharp at free end. The fleshy part is so thin as to be more like a thin skin than real meat. On the other hand the stone is very large, the seed well developed and often double. It grows slowly and as regards the appearance of its branches, it has a spiney look and is wonderfully strong against vicissitudes of climate, and in size it only reaches the height of a