Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1883-06-01
The olive Question.

Mr.. A. F. Kercheval, in yesterday :
HERALD, entertains some hereticaI views
in regard to the cultivation of the olive,
and closes by saying:
Again. as is well known, tree will
bear an excellent crop one season, and
be comparatively barren for series of
years afterwards, with the same degree
of cultivation and care bestowed upon it,.
/ am aware that Mr.. Cooper, of Santa
Barbara, Mr.. Kimball, Of San Diego,
and some others, claim that Olive grow
ing is great success, which would seem
to indicate certain localities, and close
proximity to the sea, as requisite to its
successful cultivation in Southern Cali
fornia.
If any enthusiastic advocate of the
olive will absolutely demonstrate the
certainty OF its bearing as the grape and
the orange bears. almost every year,
and tell us Just how to make them do it.,
he may indeed justly. lay claim to the
title of public benefactor, and soon ex-
pect to see thousand mounts of Olives,
now only crowned by thorny and forbid
ding chapparal.
After an examination of the olive tree
ten years in Southern California, it
affords us pleasure to state that the
result Of our observation removes all
the IFS in the communication of our
poet friend. Mr.. KerchevaI. The olive
trees do not need to be near the sea
shore to bear we'll, although they might
bear there if the soil were of the right
composition. We have taken special
pains to note the olive trees that were
planted on high ground in the San Ga
briel Valley, AMI have found that such
trees, when cultivated, have borne a
good crop every year for the last de-
cade. In some cases the trees were
moderately irrigated, AMI in other cases
they were not irrigated at all, but al |
bore uniformly and never missed a
year.
The olive is q noble tree. 1t like 3
open air, cleanliness and cultivation.
The damp air of the crowded city, with
its lack of circulation, its foul gases and
nightly smoke and fog, does not seem
congenial to the best development of the
olive tree. But yet it lives even here,
after the orange and the lemon have
died Of these atmospheric impurities.
It is the longest lived fruit tree, and the
most hardy of all trees. Gophers and
frost do not bother it, and it fourishes
where the frost has killed the lime.
lemon and orange.
Mr.. ]. De Barth Shorb has grown
olives for more than a dozen years in
San Gabriel, and he informs US that the
tree bears every year and the fruit is
always in good demand. 1t does not
seem to flourish well in the city, where
the air is always damp, and where it is
usually planted among the weeds and
willows by the roadside, where it gets
no cultivation except that given to thorns
and thistles. In such places one might
rs well expect to gather grapes from
thorns or figs from thistles" as to gather
olives. But give it high land, soil a
little stiff, and good cultivation, and the
result will be rewarding. The finest
olives we have ever seen grew forty to
fifty miles inland, while good olives
row at San Diego and San Luis Rsy.
n our own experience We have found
he tree to bear the fourth year from
Wanting, and TO bear every year, whether
vatered or not. II our friend, the poet,
vill fulfill the conditions mentioned in
his article and plant mount Of olives,
e can soon see this historic tree. the
mblem Of peace and good will, waving
IS gray-greon plumss and purpls-brown