Special Consular Reports Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 edition. Excerpt: ...air, and solar heat, most necessary to the plant at this period. INTERG ROP CULTURE IN OLIVE PLANTATIONS. In most cases the intervening spaces are cultivated with the ordinary crops of the country, maize, wheat, luzern, or a rotation of those crops; but, while the constant movement of the soil between the trees is advantageous, the exhaustion of its nutritive elements by such plantations is certainly a prejudice, especially after the trees have attained a certain size and vigor. The best authorities urge their discontinuance after ten or twelve years, without, however, neglecting to spade the ground in April or May, and, if possible, in August of each year. Those who attach primary importance to their olive crop oftener sow vctches, lupines, beans, and such vegetables only around their trees, and turn them in with the spade or plow, a practice which, by common consent, gives precisely the manure best suited to the requirements of the plant. MANURE, AND PROTECTION FROM COLD. About once in three years the supply of more stimulating manure should be renewed, and for this purpose, as before mentioned, besides the ordinary stable product, the refuse of the tannery, remains of hoots, and other substances containing azotates, phosphates, and carbonates of potassa are excellent material. It is usual, on the approach of winter, after the crop, to raise a considerable heap of earth around the foot of each tree to protect the roots from a possible excess of cold. The olive perishes if exposed to a temperature of 11 or 12 centigrade below zero (=+10 or + 12 Fahr.), and if attacked at the season of renewed vegetation, even at--7 or-80 centigrade (=+19 or +200 Fahr.). PRUNING AND CULTIVATING. A general pruning takes place in spring as soon as all...