OLIVE. The Olive has been successfully cul tivated for many years on the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama; so far, however, more in an amateur way than with a view of reaping profit from pressing the oil. The olive, Olea Europma, has always held rank as the most important oil-producing plant, until of late years, scientific horticulture and improved pro cesses for expressing oils from various substances has rendered it less and less necessary for culin ary use, and has furnished far cheaper substitutes for burning. Its history is given as f011ows: Homer mentions green olives in the garden of Alcinous and LOrtes, which were brought by Cecrops, the founder of Athens, to Greece. Minerva is related to have planted it with her own hand upon the consecrated locality of her citadel, by thrusting her spear into the ground. No temple or sacred place dedicated to her was without its olive tree. The olive belongs to the fruits which were promised to the Jews in Canaan. This tree was first brought to Italy in the year 571 before Christ, and at the time of Pliny had been carried aver the Alps to Gaul and Spain. At the time of Cato, the Romans were acquainted with only nine kinds of olives, which, however, at the time of Pliny, had increased by cultiva tion to twelve. The cultivated olive tree, was distinguished from the wild olive by the ancients. Willkom is of opinion that the olive tree is indige nous in various parts of the Mediterranean region, Spain, and also in the southern portions of the Peninsula. He states that the olive forest of forty square miles at the foot of the Sierra Morena, to the south, between Andujar and Cor dova, may have been entirely planted by hand. He is also of opinion that the olive forest, three leagues in length, situated further south, between Seville and Utrera, to the left of the Guadal quivir, consists of olive trees run wild, having small globular fruit possessing but little oil. He thinks that this forest could only have sprung up in consequence of the driving away of the Moors, or from the neglect of former olive plantations, as has been the case in other instances. He thinks himself, however, safe in stating that the hedges and forests of olives in the southern part of Spain may have arisen from indigenous plants. The wild olive tree forms forests and groves, not only in the plains of Seville, where it has cer tainly arisen frorn the running wild of originally cultivated olive trees, but in the mountains also, as in the Serrania da Ronda, etc. Pt is most fre quently met with in wild sandstone mountains, rising to a height of 4,000 feet along the Straits of Gibraltar, between Algesiras and Alcala de Ios Waffles, where, from 2,000 feet and upwards, it forms a principal constituent of the indescribably magnificent foliage which covers that mountain. Some early attempts were made to introduce the olive into the United States, and it would undoubtedly flourish on dry or rocky soils from southern Tennessee south. On page 685 is an illustration showing an olive branch and fruit, with blossom at the right. Mr. Jefferson, writing from Paris in 1787, remarked that, although the olive was a tree the least known in America, it was the most worthy of being known. Of all the gif ts of heaven to man, said lie, it is next to the most precious, if it be not the most precious. Perhaps it may claim a preference even to bread, because there is such an infinitude of vegetables which it renders a proper and comfortable nourishment. In passing the Alps at the Col de Tende, where they are mere masses of rocks, wherever there happens to be a little soil there are a number of olive trees and a village sup ported by them. Take away these trees, and the same ground in corn would not support a single family. A pound of oil, which can be bought for three or four pence sterling, is equivalent to many pounds of flesh by the quantity of vege tables it will prepare and render fit and comfort able food Without this tree the country of Provence and territory of Genoa would not support one-half, perhaps not one-third, their present inhabitants. The nature of the soil is of
little consequence, if it be dry. The trees are planted from fifteen to twenty feet apart, and, when tolerably good, will yield fifteen or twenty pounds of oil yearly, one with another. There are trees which yield much more. They begin to yield good crops at twenty years old, and last till killed by cold, which happens at some time or other, even in their best positions in France But they put out again from their roots. In Italy (I am told) they have trees two hundred years old. They afford an easy but constant employment through the year, and require so little nourishment, that if the soil be fit for any other production. it may he cultivated among the olive trees without injuring them. Wherever the orange will stand at all, experience shows that the olive will stand well, being a hardier tree. The olive is a low, branchy, evergreen tree, rising from twenty feet to thirty feet, with stiff, narrow, bluish-green leaves. The flowers are produced, in small axillaiy bunches, from wood of the former year, and appear in June, July, and August. Near Terni, in the vale of the cascade of Marmora, is a plantation above two miles in extent, supposed to be the same plants mentioned by Pliny as growing there in the first century. With protection from severe frost, Miller says, it may be maintained against a wall in the latitude of London. In Devonshire some trees have stood the climate for many years. It is to be hoped that the cultivation of the olive may be extended in the South. It would add ohe more means of revenue, and upon soils unfit for other crops. It is hardly probable that the pressing of the oil would be profitable, but the pickled fruit would be much superior to that imported. The following is the process of pickling in France: For each pound of the fruit, take a pound of good strong ashes, (those from the hickory wood are the best,) and an ounce of good slaked lime; mix the lime and ashes with water, until a soft paste or mortar is formed, into which stir or imbed the olives, and finish by covering the whole mass with a layer of dry ashes. Let them remain in this state until all the bitumen is extracted, which may be known by the stones slipping readily out of the pulp, when squeezed between the fore finger and thumb, for which purpose a few may be tried once an hour, or oftener, if desired. The length of time required for this, however, will depend entirely upon the quality of the ashes and linne, and may vary from two or three hours to as many days. As soon as the olives have . been deprived of their bitterness, they must he cleanly washed, and put to soak-in fresh wilier, which must be changed about once an hour, for twenty-four hours, when the taste of potash will have been removed, and the water cease to be discolored. The olives must then be put into. bottles or jars, and a strong brine put over them, made from good alum, or other pure salt. This. brine will generally require to be changed seve ral times, in consequence of becoming ash colored, after which, the bottles must be sealed air-tight; and, if kept in a cool, dry, dark place, the olives will keep good for years. Olives care fully cured after this plan, will be found less salt than those pickled in France, which are usually sold in this country, and will retain much of the nutty flavor of pure olive oil. We append a list from a late Spanish work on olives, of varieties, their uses, and adaptation to. climates.