The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-27
THE OLIVE IN CALIFORNIA
A NURsERYMAN's DISCOVERY THAT
PAID HIM NOTHING.

stead of Twenty Ycars-Rnpid
Growth of the Industry OF Late.
Methods of Extracting the OIL and
of Picking the Berries.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.
Pomona, Sept. S.-The fact that over
I 10000 olive trees have been planted in Cal
I ifornia since this year began. and that
/ olive nurserymen residing IN several parts
/ of the state have reason TO believe that
they will sell in the next ten months every
I one OF the million or more Of young olive
/ trees they have grown for orchard plant
/ ing is evidence of the marvellous strides
/ the culture of this fruit is making on this
/ coast. In the years 1856. 1857, and 1883 the
average annual planting of olive trees in
/ orchards in this state amounted to less
/ than 10000 trees. Five years ago 1t was
/ matter of editorial comment IN the jour
nails of California when reports showed
total planting for that year of over $1,000
olive trees in this commonwealth. Three
years ago Pomona valley alone grew and
shipped some 10000 young olive trees. and
in the last year has sent away to fruit
/ growers in thirteen counties in California
over $4,000 young olive trees from the
nurseries.
charles in this state put the number of
acres Of trees in full bearing at about
/ 5000, and the total olive orchard area
at about 2lO00 acres, valued at about
100000. Last year the value Of the
crop in Southern California and the oil
product from the same are roughly es-
timated at $4,000, but as no effort has
! ever been made to get statements of the
value or individual yields Of olives in
this region since the product became so
important these figures are but a rough
estimate. Some dealers in olives and
olive oil in Southern California put the
/ total value of the crop Tor 1884 at over
| S3000OO Reports from numerous olive
| growers in this part of the state in the
/ past few weeks give reason to believe
/ the crop of olives for this year will be
| larger than that of year ago. The
| crop, taking tree for tree, viii be smaller,
/ but there are so many new orchards
| coming into bearing in all of the south
! ern counties that the total amount Will
| be larger than ever before. This is the
| off year for olives. The crop will be
! gathered in November and December,
and the process of picking the fruit and
of extracting oil from the same viii be
in fun blast when January will have
arrived
The age of the oldest olive trees in
California runs back over ninety years.
There are six in number and stand about
the San Gabriel mission, still bearing
| fruit, living monuments to the wisdom
of the Franciscan friars. The very old
est olive tree in the country is that at the
Capistrano mission, thirty miles south of
Los Angeles. Its seed came from BARGE
Iona, Spain, in 1769, and the purpose was
to provide food from the trees for the
monks who came from olives growing
regions in the same ATTITUDES as Southern
| California in Spain, and the South of
I France. The old monarch has been pho
| tographed hundreds of times by tour
| lists from the east. 1t is fifty feet high
| and has trunk five feet in diameter
/ The nrst manufacture of olive oil in Cali
| fornia, outside of the Franciscan monas-
| teries was that at Comulus ranch i'm San
RnAnnWnnfT1rn In nl4. 1ar.f
was sold at a good profit to druggists
/ and others in Los Angeles and Santa Bar
bara. In 1892 the production Of olive oil
] had grown to $4,000 gallons, in 1898 it was
| about $1,000 gallons, and this year close
| estimates put the Yield at about 1900 gall
| Ions. The extent Of the American market
| open to the California olive oil makers can
/ be realized in the fact that the department
! OF agriculture reports there are over $780,.
| 600 gallons of olive oil annually imported
| into the United States from Italy, SPAIN
/ and France and tends OF thousands of
| gallons of olive oil, adulterated with pea
\ nut, cotton seed and poppy oil, are sold
every year in this country
! The eastern people here often express
| wonder that olive growing in California
! has been so backward, considering that
| the adaptability of the fruit to this climate
| and soil was demonstrated by the Fran
clscan monks many decades ago. The
| principal reason is because of the former
| slow processes of propagating olive trees
and the many years that had to be spent
| in bringing the young trees TO their bear
ing. People in the west, indeed all over
| the union, do not care to give long years
in preparing for crop of fruit of any
kind
The present method of growing olive
trees for orchard planting was not known
until about 1883. The method Of producing
! owe trees now in vogue among old fash
| Toned European olive growers, and once
common in California, is to cut limbs as
large in diameter as mans arm from
tree. An old olive tree will not furnish
more than three or four such limbs for
propagating purposes. II will be immedi-
ateiy seen that the process is expensive,
and limits the starting of new orchards
| TO Few each year. another method is
the old fashioned planting of olive seeds.
This is the slowest manner of making an
| orchard, and by such a method bearing
olive trees cannot be produced in less than
by extreme care and watchfulness. In
California the method of growing olive
trees from small cuttings has for ten
years been made great success Olive
trees for orchard planting purposes used
to cost 81 and IS each. They can now be
had by the thousands for 10 and 10 cents
A poor Pomona nurseryman named Nc
Lennon found by experimenting that
olive trees could be propagated from cut
lungs by starting them in the winter
months in boxes of sand in hothouses
Ihat discovery is worth millions OF dol
lars to California and the southwest
but the discoVerer has lately been WORK
ing in Pomona nursery for 81 so a day
The cuttings, that come by the hundreds
AlOin a Iull-SlZed tree, are about the size
of toothpicks. The new method of prop
agating requires the most constant at
tention and much experience, but the
plants are grown on such an enormous
scale that the cost of each is very low
When the cuttings are rooted they are
transferred. in the warmer months of
spring, to the out-of-door nursery, where
they become trees of three and four feet
in hight in twelve or eighteen months
The practical fruit grower plants the
trees in his olive orchard forty feet
apart, so that there will be ample room
for the roots to spread over large area
and to get all the sustenance possible
from the soil. The olive has almost q
human gift of adaptation TO environ
ment 1t hourishes in a temperature
that falls to IA degrees above zero, and
in the inland valleys Of California where
the thermometer reaches 120 degrees, it
grows, irrigated only by natural rain
fall 1t finds in the California foothills
just such homelike surroundings as at
its 1000 feet lever in Algeria and its Ital-
ian elevation of $500 feet. 1t will pros
per in any friable soil rich in lime and
potash, as are all the virgin lands of the
crest. 1t also does well where it's roots
can penetrate easily a rocky, clay sand,
granite, or volcanic formation, seeming
to prefer an arid mountain SOIL but not
disdaining life in the black adobe near
the coast.
From the time the young olive trees are
planted in the orchard it is seven years