Page:The Olive Its Culture in Theory and Practice.djvu/73



The olive is propagated in many different ways, by seed, by cuttings, by truncheons, by grafts, by suckers, by knots, by layering, and by pieces of the root.

The best method, in spite of all that may be urged against it, because the natural one, is the planting of the seed. All others are mere continuations of a life already existing but with each seed is produced, in the manner intended by nature, a new tree. The non-success that has attended many efforts to raise the olive from seed in California, undoubtedly arose from faulty handling. Some go so far as to claim that the Mission olive contains no germ. This is absurd. The Mission olive contains well developed seeds in the same proportion that all others do, viz., the poorest olive for oil or pickling is the best for seed. The olive nearest approaching the wild type, the olive that contains the largest seed in proportion to the berry, is the best for planting. One tenth of the stones of the wild olive have a double germ and this is the best of all olives for seed, second the Mignolo, third the Razzo, Leccino, Puntarolo and Trillo, fourth the Grossajo and fifth the Morajolo.