The record-union., 1892-10-17
INFORMATION ON OLIVES.
Interesting Letters on Very I'm
portant Industry.
Statements That Should be Read by
Every Person Interested in the
Culture of Olives.

!
Culture of Olives.
The following correspondence will be
found of intense interest TO those engaged
in the olive industry in California. The
RECoRD-UNIoN knows nothing of the
merits of the controversy over the relative
value of the different varieties named, but
the subject is one of vital importance to
growers, and they will be able to judge of
the merits of the controversy. The let
ters are self-explanatory:
SANTA BARBARA, Sept. q, 1892
| EDS. RECORD UNION: As / feel per-
fectly sure that you are deeply interested
in gathering any facts that will throw
| light on the horticultural interests of
| California, | therefore send to you let
ter received from my brother, A. p.
Hayne. who is devoting four years to the
study OF Ylticulture and oil making III
Europe. The information l now send to
you all came about in this way, and /
| therefore wish this heading published so
that my motives will be fully under
stood.
Some months ago received q pamphlet
through the Postofiice, and these PAM
phlets were generally circulated through
out the entire State. The work was by
| Adolph tlammant, and he took special
! pains to try and induce the public To be-
| Ileve that the Picholine olive OF Califor-
mia, SO called, was very superior and
/ we'll known variety in France. [ read
his work and was pretty thoroughly con-
/ WINGED that Mr.. Flammant was just talk
| ing; still | knew that these pamphlets
| would reach many man who would be
utterly at loss in regard to the truth of
| the statement.
! AS far as l am concerned, am quite
| familiar with the Picholine (so-called),
beside having fifteen other varieties Of
| olives now growing and bearing. The
| Mission olives, which are the standard of
California, of which have 100000 young
trees, and which are considered very
| fine variety, Mr.. Elammant abuses open
| ly and tries to convince the public that
the so-called Picholine should take the
place of them all. Mr.. Flammant speaks
of Ellwood Cooper's trees (Missions) as
only bearing handful of fruit, etc. l
have seen Mr.. Cooper's trees perfectly
black with fruit, and he tells me that
some of them yield as high as forty gal
Ions per tree. or 240 pounds, and few of
his trees have given over twice this
quantity. Yet Mr.. Flammant, in his very
fluent way, is trying hard to convey to
| the minds of the planters of olives that
| they should uproot the Missions and sup
plant them with the Picholines.
After reading his pamphlet | inclosed
1t to my brother, who was then in France,
and begged him to thoroughly investi-
gate the matter, and then to write to me.
/ received his reply and have inclosed it
| to you. have been propagating the olive
! now for eleven years, and when my
brother was here in California he studied
| them carefully also, and then he went to
Europe, where he is in position to find out
many facts which We in California would
! hn at loss TO know | think that
| Mr.. Flammant may regret that he sent
me one of his numerous publications, for
l have spared no pains to thoroughly ex-
pose man who l believe is also doing a
great deal to mislead the public generally.
| Many man may ruin himself supposing,
as he well may, that Mr.. Flammant's work
on the Picholine olive is sound. The
public may, therefore, be somewhat inter
ested'in the letter / now inclose to you,
especially the olive-growers.
W. ALsToN HAYNE, JR.
MONTPELIER INSTITUTE, France,
August 81, 1892.
Since receiving your letter asking for
information concerning the Picholine
olives, some months ago, have revisited
the entire region de Polivier in France
and also those parts of Italy north of
Pisa and Florence, and have gained all
the information possible. In California
you can have no idea of the extreme diff
Guilty one has in attempting an investiga-
ton of this sort. 1t seems very simple
thing to go to man-an olive grower
and ask him what varieties he has. Yes,
very simple, but what kind of an answer
do you get? He gravely tells you of
names you never heard of before, of
i qualities that if half were real, absolute
perfection in olive varieties would be
realized. His neighbor gives the same
trees totally different names and differ
ent qualities, and so they go from farm to
farm, commune to commune, and finally
from department to department.
There are, however, few gentlemen
proprietors in France who have studied
the question, and after thirty or forty
years of study can tell you something. 1
had interviews with Professor L. De-
gruilly, Professor of Agriculture at the
National School of Agriculture at Mont
pellier, author of book on the varieties
of olives grown in France; with his col
laborator, Professor Pierre Viala, Pro-
fessor at the Institute Agrononque at
Paris; CASTOR Bazille, the pioneer scien-
tihc agriculturalist of southern France, a
gentleman who was famous as a scientist
and practician over forty years ago. and
one who knows 1.-THE Midi like a book.
also visited the country places, and had
interviews with many of the oldest and
most important olive growers of the re-
gion; besides long interviews with Pro-
| lessor +. Gas, Director OF the agricultural
school at Antobes VAR, and Mr.. Mari of
Nice, without doubt the most capable
person to discuss the subject yet met
with.
These are but few of the authorities
shall quote. AS for books, have read all
could lay my hands on, in Latin, old
French, modern French, and Italian.
| The conclusion come to is, that all that is
printed in that circular broadcasted by
Adolphe Elammant, one of which you sent
me, is utter nonsense. His quotations
from lot of old literary dictionaries to
support his thesis is too absurd to be lis
tened to, besides, in all the cases where I
could obtain these long dead and buried
literary works, / find that he has only
half quoted. But that is neither here nor
there. The fact remains that it is not
true.
In the first place he says that the vari-
ETY. of olive bearing small fruit known
in California as Picholine, is one of the
"best known varieties of the Midi of
France" This is false, for no one ever
heard of it. l visited the communes men,
toned and can speak from three years.
residence in their very midst and a previ-
Gus knowlege of the California variety
besides the authorities have given Mr..
Fiammant can say what he likes; nobody
knows it at the places mentioned by him.
or anywhere else, and 1 defy him to find
1t under the name of Picholine. Again
he says that this especial variety of Picho-
line tof which he probably has a large
stock to sell to the people of California;
was created by "Picholine himself'' by
grating the Soarin on the Sauvegon
wild olive. Aside from anything else
he shows himself either utterly ignorant