The herald., 1893-02-12
THE GOSPEL OF THE OLIVE,
Points About the Culture of
the Poor Mans Tree.
California Equal, if not Superior TO,
Italy for Olive Culture.
The Trees Ban Be Grown on Cheap Land
Without Irrigation-Their PRODUCE
tiveness-Large Returns Can
Be Relied Upon.

The following paper on olive culture,
by John s. Calkins, of Pomona, CAL,
was read at the meeting of the Southern
California Farmers' institute, held at
Rivera February 9TH and Sth, 1898:
There are so few bearing olive orch
ards in California to serve as object les
sons, that even fruit growers do not
know much about the profits of olive
culture. In view of this, it might be
well to consider the behavior of olive
trees under what is generally supposed
to be unfavorable conditions. l will
allude to several cases: Mr.. Henry HI.
Wheeler, neighbor of mine, and q
very reliable gentleman, writes to the
Pomona Progress that he has about 400
Mission olive trees, and years old,
planted ~ feet apart, occupying less
than four and one-half acres; they bore
this season 1888 pounds, which he sold
at b cents per pound (less than % cents
per gallon). which amounted to $3S1.90,
or about $S6 per acre. If he had made
the olives into pickles himself, as grow
Wholesale prices would have been about
s34a per acre. The crop will increase
from year to year until the trees are
about 80 years of age, and continue in
fruitage for more than 100 years. These
trees have not been irrigated since they
were set out, and the fruit has never
shriveled before 1t was gath
cred. A mile or more from Mr..
Wheeler's orchard, well up the
mountain side. there is an abandoned
place on which there are number of A.
year-old olive trees growing without
cultivation or irrigation this year they
bore fruit which ripened without shriv-
cling; the soil ia stiff clay, and was so
dry and hard at the time the ripe fruit
was on the trees that scarcely any i'm
preston could be made upon 1t with
shovel. Several miles east of this place,
near the mountains, is an olive tree
which the owner told me had not been
irrigated since he had owned it (some IL
years., but that every year it had borne
good crop Of fruit.
six years ago (ssys the Auburn Her
ald) William Shillingsburg purchased
an S0-acre tract of about the poorest
land in the neighborhood, on one of the
highest and dryest hill-tops near New
castle, Placer county; he pulled up
stumps, grubbed out brush, quarried
rocks, reclaimed all mined-out land and
filled up mining cuts he has now, upon
what WAS regarded the worst part of the
80, q bearing olive orchard which
yielded this season 5000 gallons of olives;
it is located high above his irrigating
ditch on red granite land, which looks
80 parched and burnt as almost to cause
one to believe that his Satanic majesty |
had for generations past used it for q
gridiron. No water other than the rain
has ever touched the land, and the |
owner says he would run man off with |
a gun If he found him fooling around |
his- -traes.,yita kzatax-vS.. ------- e-.--
of olive trees bearing well without irri- |
CATION. There are 90 olive trees along a |
roadside near Glendale, in this county, |
which averaged 2SS pounds Of olives to
the tree this season; fruit firm bought |
them at 81 cents per pound and made
them into pickles. The owner received
less than 20 cents per gallon, but even
at this low price his returns from each
tree amounted to $40 08. If he had made
the crop into pickles himself and sold at
market rates, he would have received at
least $40 per tree. 1 am not informed
how old the trees are, or whether
they have been irrigated. There are
many thousands Of acres of land through
out California that are as well adapted
to olive growing without irrigation as
Mr.. Wheeler's, which may be bought at
$40 to $25 per acre. When it is seen
what generous returns the olive yields
on these cheap lands we may forecast
how important the olive industry is des-
tined to become.
The outlook for ready and profitable
market for the product is most encourag-
ing, while our other fruits, in the main,
must seek a market in the east, where
they come into competition with fruits
raised there and elsewhere. We have
for the olive q home market almost
wholly unsupplied, except by the in
ferior green picked olives and spurious
oil imported into the state from Europe
in large quantities. Our picked olives
are becoming very popular, and the in
creasing demand for them is unmis-
taxable. There can be no doubt that as
soon as we have the goods in sufficient
quantity they will displace the inferior
oil and pickles imported here. not only
in the markets of our own state, but in
those of the entire country, and it may
be confidently asserted that when our
pure oil can be put upon the European
markets side by side with the cotton
seed mixture that now prevails there,
that it will win and hold permanent
place even in those markets.
The olive is eminently the poor mans
tree; he can grow the fruit on cheap
land and can make the oil and pickles
at home by simple and cheap means, as
has been done by many persons for
years past, the art being no more diff
cult to learn than the making OF butter
and cheese. II he prefers to sell his
fruit from the tree there are already
competing buyers, and their number
will increase as the product increases.
As to varieties, the Mission is best
known and has produced nearly all the
oil and pickles of the state up to this
time; but within few years many new
varieties have been imported from Eu-
rope. I have in my nurseries nearly
go varieties. A number of them are in
bearing in different parts of the state
and are highly esteemed. Upon this
point will present the views of Mr.. X.
McLennan, foreman of the State Exper-
iment station at Pomona. He is thor
ough horticnlturist and was for many
wears connected with the experiment
station at Berkeley, CAL, where he had
special opportunities for studying the
| different varieties of olives; his opin-
| ion, therefore, on the subject, is OF
value. In a recently published let
ter he said "Over a year ago
Professor .Hilgard director of the ex.
pertinent station of the University Of
California) made analysis OF IL varieties
of olives from Fresno, Santa Clara and