Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE OLIVE TREE AND ITS PRODUCTS, AND THE Suitability o the Soil and Climate of California FOR ITS Extensive And Profitable Cultivation. John I. Bleasdale, D. D., F. G. S. Secretary of the Board of State Viticultura! Commissioners. ERSITY J 7if?r;/ efe OO.. 1881. -.?- x Prof. E. W. Hilgard, Professor of Agriculture in the State University: Dear J Sir: ? I do myself the honor of inscribing the following little treatise, on "The Olive Tree and its Products," and "The Suitability of the Climate of California for its Extensive Cultivation," to you, as an expression of my admiration of your efforts to benefit this State by introducing and fostering the profitable secondary industries of Southern Europe. John I. Bleasdale. y THE OLIVE TREE. V Among the vegetable substances which minister to the daily wants of man throughout Southern Europe, Egypt, and sub-tropical Asia, the olive and its products hold the next place after cereals and vines in economic and commercial importance. So remunerative has the culture of the olive been considered, that, even in portions of a country where it does not form the principal aim of the cultivator, it is deemed his most valuable secondary or subsidiary resource. Where the land is suited for wheat, especially on low hill-sides, the olive trees are planted at considerable distances asunder all through it, and need no care beyond that bestowed on cultivating the ground for ordinary crops. The cereals may perish by blight or fire, but the olive crop is certain. Land in Southern Europe, with soil and climate very nearly the same as those of California, when cut up into very small holdings, still supports dense populations in reasonable comfort. The people are frugal, industrious, thrifty, and...