The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-06
An Interesting and Instructive
Address by A. P.
Hayne.
HINTS TO GROWER AND PACKER
Professor Ross Discourses on the
Farmer and the Railroad
Problem.

gan this morning with lecture on 1.-THE
Olive and its Products" by A. P. Hayne,
the instructor in charge of olive culture
and Viticulture at the University of Cali
forn1a. The subject was handled from the
point of view of the small farmer, for, as
he said:
Those who undertake to manufacture olive
oil must have good training and must be
ready to go into it on large scale. Oil making
is distinctively not poor mans undertaking.
Manufacturers must be men of means and
training, as is the case in all branches of our
manufacturing business The small farmer, if
he owns but dozen trees, can make good
profits, either selling his olives to the oilmaker
or picking the fruit and selling to the pickle
merchant, or substituting olives for meat.
man can raise just as healthy family by SUBJ
stituting ripe picked olives for meat as those
who give their children beef. BY planting
border OF olives around farm some people
have paid for the cultivation of their whole
place.
Those who wish to make oil should go to the
State University and prepare themselves for
the business just as any one would who goes
into any kind of manufacturing business.
The State University, having connected with
it the United States agricultural experiment
stations, is fully equipped for giving all the
instruction desired.
There are certain general principles that
must be taken into consideration by all who
raise olives. II these be not vigorously ad-
hered to the olive-grower will not make
profit. Whenever you hear of an olfve-grower
who says that the market refuses to buy his
goods, be sure that he is to blame in the way
he has handled his crop. There is the bright
est future for olives, either for oil or pickles.
The great underlying principles are that no
olive should be bruised; second, that no olive
is as valuable when ''dead ripe' as when about
wine red; third, that bad oil or spoiled olives
are the result of carelessness in allowing
molds or smaller micro-organisms to develop.
In order not to brulse olives they should be
picked as soon ss they turn color, for then they
have their maxium value for either oil or
pickles. Nothing is gained by leaving them
on the tree after wine redness has been reached
Molds and bacteria are the great causes of bad
oil and poor pickles. The whole problem is to
keep these minute vegetables from developing.
Like the higher vegetables, all they require to
terminate is heat, nourishment and humidity.
Any one of these being absent they cannot
sprout the germs that exist everywhere.
The moment they get firm footing in the
flesh of olive, that olive is spoiled, and all
the rest of the olives in the barrel will soon be-
come infected from this breeding ground.
After picking the olives without bruising
them they should be stored in trays that admit
OF the free circulation of air from all sides.
Never store olives in layers deeper than three
inches. For pickles, don't store them at all,
but put them at once into water. When you
sell olives to the oilmaker see that he weighs
them ct once, for otherwise you lose heavily
both in bulk and weight. Cleanliness is the
most important thing IN oilmaking, for clean
illness means the suppression of molds and
bacteria.
There are two methods of preserving olives,
namely, the pure water treatment, and the I've
treatment, the object being to remove the bit
ter or acrid substances that render the ripe
olive unfit for eating.
The water treatmentis the Oldest and in some
respects the best. The olives should be soaked
in fresh pure water till the bitterness has been
removed, which takes from thirty to sixty.
days, according to the bitterness of the olive.
The water must be pure, fresh spring or well
water. Canal water, If not previously boiled,
is fatal. The water should be changed every
twelve hours. If left on longer the olives will
be spoiled. The reason for this is that II takes
but fifteen or twenty-four hours for the germs
of the microscopic plants to germinate and
olives are only spoiled by these microscopic
plants.
When sufficient amount of bitterness has
been removed to render the olives palatable
weak brine is added and left for three or four
days. After this another brine somewhat
stronger is added and finally third brine, in
which the olives can be kept for years. The
first brine should be made with four ounces OF
table salt to the gallon, the second eight ounces
and the third fourteen ounces. The water
should be boiled when the salt is added and al
lowed to cool off before putting on the olives.
Some OF the best practitioners add to the final
brine one pound of alum to the 100 gallons of
water. Alum being q powerful antiseptic
keeps the micro-organisms from terminating
and spelling the picked olives.
The I've treatment is really combination of
the pure water treatment and I've. First the
olives are put into lye solution made by dis
solving one or one and quarter pounds of
potash (9S per cent pureJ in ten gallons of
water. This is left on the olives four or five
hours, during which time it is kept in motion
by occasionally drawing off O few bueketfuls
from the bottom and pouring ii back. After a
preliminary soaking the olives are soaked for
few days and more lye of the same strength is
added and left on a few hours, till the olive
has lost sufficient amount of its bitterness,
then the whole is soaked in fresh water,
changing it every twelve hours, till all the I've
has been removed from the olives. Then salt
brine is added, as in the case of olives cured by
the fresh-water process. The great essential is
that the lye be not too concentrated, nor left
on too long. and that the water be changed
every twelve hours. mistake in either Of
these is sure to bring about the speedy ruin of
the whole lot The olives should never be
put in the watts in layers deeper than twenty
inches, and there should be floating cover to
keep the olives constantly submerged. No
more I've should be used than will just cover
the olives, as too much will soften them.
Olives should be carefully graded for profit.
They can be kept for many years in barrels in
the brine, and used by taking from the barrel
the amount desired. If they are too salty
few hours soaking in fresh water viii bring
them to the desired degree of freshness. Good,
ripe, picked olives bring on the market from
so cents to 81 25 gallon. Olives, when
allowed to become dead ripe and dried, sell for
Is cents pound. OF all the branches OF hor-
ticulture there is none in which there is
a brighter outlook than for olives. 1t must be
kept in mind that, like anything else, the trees
must be cared for nationally and the crops han
died with the greatest care and attention.
The process of curing olives is simple in the
extreme, but requires the greatest care and at
tention. Whenever pickle merchant refuses
to buy California olives it is because they have
not been cured properly, for am told by the
large pickle merchants taat the in tire crop of
California pickles are sold within three months
for higher price than the foreign olives.
L. T. D.I: