Arizona republican., 1912-12-15
REAL ESTATE
HYATT WRITES OF
 OLIVE INDUSTRY

ling department of the Munger Olive Factory, has written a most interesting resume of the history of the olive. In view of the constantly increasing in terest in the olive as d Salt River val Icy product. the article is particularly timely. MT. Hyatt writes as follows:
 The wild olive or oleaster is a small tree or brush of a rather struggling growth and thorny branches found in most of the countries around the Mediterranean. extending it's range on the west to Portugal and eastward to the vicinity of the Caspian
 An undoubtcd native of Syria and the maritime parts of Asia Minor, also in abundance in Greece and the islands of the Archipelago. It shows pref erence for caIcareous soils, tlourishing with especial luXuriance on the lime stone slopes and crags that often form the shores of the Greek peninsula and adjacent islands.
 At what period of human progress the wild oleaster passed under the care of the husbanIman and became a fruitful garden olive, il is impossible to conjecture.
 The frequent reference in the Bible to the plant and its produce it's inn piled abundance in the land of Canaan the importance it has held in the econ omy of the inhabitants of Syria. lead us to consider that country the birth place of the cultivated olive The fruit tree was considered a symbol of peace and good will among the war-lillc bar 1 barians in that primativc age. b. e, of ,I.,,, rT-. tus the olive trees were cut down. but from the roots a new growth sprang up.
 i The olive tree figures in prophecy and poetry in legendary parable and in 1 historical annals in all parts of the earth. It was the olive branch that | the dove brought into the ark to show 1 that the waters of the flood were reced- ! ing. It was the olive tree that Pallas 1 Athena presented to the people of Ath- l cns as her choicest gift It was a i crown of olives that was placed upon i the brow of the victor on the big sta i dium where men strove for mastery in l athletics. oratory, poetical and prose
 literature.
 Some old Italian olives have been credited with an antiquity reaching back to the first years of the empire or even to the days of Republican Rome
 The olive tree is an evergreen of very slow growth reaching a height of 20 or 30 feet but when allowed for ages its natural growth the trunk de- velops to a considerable diameter. His tory records q tree of ten centuries of having d girth of g feet.
 Olives were first imported into Cali fornia in 1769 from San Bias. Mexico
 by an expedition of Franciscans. sent to take charge of the Jesuit missions of California. The seed was planted at the mission San Diego and those seeds grew and prOspered. The fathers built new missions and among the first trees planted was the olive. grown from cut
 tings taken from trees of the San
 Diego mission.
 Many of these trees still live and
 bear remunerative crops under favor
 able conditions until 1872 only one va
 riety of olives was grown the "mls-
 sion so called from it's having been
 first grown at the various historic mis-
 sions.
 l Ii was some 20 odd years ago that
 the first olive groves were started in
 the Salt River valley For ten years
 previous to 1911 very few trees were
 planted. During the season of 1912
 one hundred thousand cuttings have
 been planted in various nurseries The ! Salt River valley is well adapted to the successful growing of the olive and is . destined to become one of the olive l producing sections in the south west The trees are practically free from
 any diseases, which are so prevelant in
 the coast country of California how
 ever our neighbor state has within 20
 miles of Los Angeles the largest olive
 grove in the world consisting of twen-
 ty-three hundred acres. Our soil is of
 the best for olive culture-excepting
 where there is heavy adobe and poor drainage
 It is very important that the soil
 should be quite moist during the
 blossominE season, which is usually
 in April, if q heavy setting if fruit | is expected, also give an abundance
 Of water in July and August to
 swell the berries. Give groves a 30 hour run of water once month in the following months beginning
 March l: April, May, July, August and October.
 Trees planted thirty feet apart, when fifteen years old will have formed complete mesh of roots between the trees
 Do not set out trees in virgin soil plant to alfalfa for a couple of years. then blow up and cultivate well be fore setting out trees. The alfalfa
 takes nitrogen from the air stores 1t up in the soil for the olive trees
 to appropriate. The desert soil is
 deficient in humus, thc alfalfa sup
 plies it-besides putting the soil into
 a Letter mechanical condition. Plant old olive groves to alfalfa at
 a period of every five years. Flow it
 under after two years and cultivate
 third and fourth years. SOW Q some
 legumnous cover crop Curing winter seasons, blow under in spring and cultivate during the summer. The ManZanillo and Mission Vari- cites of olives seem to be the most desirable for the Salt River valley. The Manzanillo is q good picking olive-but it is undesirable for oil