# A Practical Treatise on Olive Culture, Oil Making and Olive Pickling/Chapter 1

THE OLIVE TREE.
CHAPTER I.
SOILS SUITABLE TO ITS CULTURE.
In the Book of the Hebrews we read that when Noah, desiring to ascertain whether or not the waters of the deluge were beginning to withdraw from the surface of the earth, dispatched a dove from the ark, that feathered courier brought back to him "an olive leaf plucked off." Ever since that time the verdant branch of this evergreen tree has been regarded as the appropriate emblem of peace and of abundance.
We read in The Book of Judges, chap, ix.: 8—"The trees went forth on a time to anoint a King over them: and they said unto the olive tree. Reign thou over us."
We also find in the Book of Nehemiah, chap, viii.: "And Ezra the priest said unto all the people: This day is holy unto the Lord, your God; Go forth unto the mount and fetch olive branches."
Amid the steep and arid slopes overlooking the valley of Jehosaphat rises the Holy Mount, clad ​in the constant verdure of the olive trees among which our Blessed Savior used to roam, and whence he wept over Jerusalem.
A venerable legend tells us that when Minerva became the tutelary goddess of the City of Cecrops, she caused the olive tree to grow spontaneously on the Rock of the Acropolis, which Neptune had just struck with his trident; and thence, kept with religious care, the olive tree became one of the emblems of the goddess.
Another legend represents Hercules introducing into Greece the olive tree which he brought from the Mounts Girapetra, in Creta.
Pindar says that all the slopes of Mount Olympus were soon covered with it, and that the Athenians used to crown with its branches the victors in the Olympic games.
From Greece it was introduced into Italy. There, says Virgil (Book II. Georgics), "the sterile lands and stony hills delight to be covered with the hardy and perennial olive tree."
Martial also says: "Hereafter the proud oak may be jealous of the olive tree of the Mount Alban!"
When the Phoceans founded Marseilles, about 600 years before the Christian Era, they introduced the olive tree in Provence, where they planted it only on steep and stony places.
In passing over a long period, during which the praises of the olive tree have been sung in many tongues, we come to that great agriculturist, ​Parmentier, who during the last century was instrumental in the introduction of the potato into France. He says: "Of all the trees that the industry of men has made profitable, the olive tree deserves, without contradiction, the very first place."
It is thus on the Mount Ararat, on the mountains mentioned by Nehemiah, on the summits of the Acropolis, on Mount Olympus, on the Girapetra Mountains, on the steep declivities of the Holy Mount, on Mount Alban, on the rough and stony spots selected by the Phoceans, on the sterile and rocky places recommended by Virgil that the ollve tree has found the kind of soil most propitious to its robust constitution.
Has the tree or the nature of the soil changed since so that we may wisely disregard the testimony of the ancients? Is there anything to encourage us now to plant the olive tree on a richer or a different soil from that of its historic and traditional growth?
In the works of the most reputed modern writers we find full and satisfactory assurance that the kind of soil cited by the ancients is the most favorable to the growth and profitable culture of the olive tree. I will here give a few citations:
Riondet, p 2. The olive tree requires a warm but temperate climate. It dreads equally extreme cold and excessive heat. In the north of Europe its progress is checked by cold weather; ​in the south and in Africa it is stopped by too much heat.
It does not grow well on low and wet lands, but it succeeds perfectly on mountains as well as on hills, and even amidst rocks, provided there is but little soil; indeed, on places where there seems to be scarcely anything but stones.
What gives it still a greater value is that where it grows best other annual products are impracticable.
p. 13.: The olive tree is capable of enhancing the value of a soil naturally poor to a figure ranging from twelve to fifteen thousand francs per hectare. (Equal here to about $1,000 to $1,200 per acre.)
p. 42.: In France the finest and most productive olive trees are to be found in the neighborhood of the city of Grasse, and they are mostly always planted on steep and rugged hills.
p. 133.: The olive tree grows to perfection on dry lands, and in climates where often not a drop of rain falls for six and eight months.
Reynaud. p. 34. How much waste land could be utilized in the cultivation of the olive tree, which is so little exacting that it seems to be contented with a few baskets full of earth! In fact, where is the tree that, like it, would grow on arid, rocky spots, and without water? And then, it requires so little care, such slight cultivation, so little fertilizing!
p. 67.: The olive tree prefers hills and ​elevated places, does not grow well in valley lands, low and wet, or where water stands. Its fruit corresponds to the soil where it is planted; in rich and moist land it gives a heavy and fatty oil; in the warm and dry soils the oil will be finer; in the marly and clayey soils it produces less.
p. 106.: It can be easily understood why it cannot be planted in regular lines or rocky situations, where one utilizes even the interstices of rock, and where there is hardly enough earth to cover the roots.
Coutance. p. 177.: The best soils, where the fertility of cereals is so great, are not the proper ones for the olive tree, not that it will not grow in them, but because an exaggerated ligneous development will take place at the expense of the richness of its fruits. The quality of the oil will likewise be affected. M. Cappy establishes on this point the difference noticeable between the products of the olive trees of the fertile plains of Calabria and those of the stony hills of Lucca; between the products of the plains of Salon, in France, and those of the rocky hills of Marseilles and Montpellier.
The olive is the only tree for the arid, steep and rocky hills of the Mediterranean shores. The ancients knew this well. Mangon insists on the necessity of planting it on a dry soil. Lucilius Junior, Virgil, Columelle, and many others make the same point.
​p. 139.: It will grow up to an altitude of 1200, 1800, and even of 2300 feet, in some instances.
Fabien speaks of the necessity of temperate climates for the olive tree. It prefers the neighborhood of the sea, and it is more fertile in proportion as it approaches salt water, to enjoy the sea breezes.
There are still at Jerusalem olive trees, that M. Bove estimates to be possibly over 2,000 years old, that have witnessed the great scenes of the Savior's Passion.
M. Enault affirms that he has seen the finest trees in existence at Mount Carmel, in Galilea and in Samaria, and that he has seen none anywhere presenting an appearance of extreme age so striking as those of Gethsemane found in arid and rocky situations.
Finally Delille affirms that he picked a branch of the famous olive tree of Athens, the age of which is admitted to be about forty centuries.