Page:The Olive Its Culture in Theory and Practice.djvu/91



"Marry the olive and the vine." The soil which suits the vine is also good for the olive. This is what is seen throughout the greater part of Italy; there they say the olive does not prosper in celibacy. The deep soils can well support both. Consociation offers the great advantage of getting some return from the soil during the lengthened youth of this tree, which when it has grown to a sufficient size, the vine plot commences to age, and, disappearing by degrees, leaves the olive sole occupant of the soil. When the olives grow to a large size, and are planted near to each other, or in places where the ground is poor, other crops are not usually grown. With these two exceptions, the ground under the trees is generally utilized. At Grasse and Nice, they associate together the olive and the fig, and other fruit trees; as also the vine. In such cases the trees are planted in rows, about twenty feet apart, and the intervening space is sown one year in beans, or maize, and the next year in corn. The Inspector General of the Government Plantations of France says: This system cannot be sufficiently applauded, both because, in many years of failure, all the interest of the capital in the ground would not be lost, and because the olive trees would benefit from the earth given to the other plants; and even, because the more distant the trees are planted in the rows, the more are they loaded with fruit, and pay better.

Signor Cappi also says: This culture may very well exist, and has been used in various provinces of Italy, especially in vast plains, with excellent results. On plains they should be planted twenty-five feet apart, and not less than fifty feet between the rows if vines are cultivated. Experience, some say, has shown that the olive cultivated alone, in rich soil grows vigorously; makes each year a number of new shoots, but gives little fruit, as the sap being too active to