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The United States has no rival as far as climate and other resources are concerned. In the West India Islands which we have acquired, in Samoa, in the Hawaiian Islands, and in the Philippines, can be produced every tropical product that has a commercial value. Hereafter, we may grow our own spices and tropical fruits, our coffee and our hemp, and numerous other peculiarly tropical productions, which are not produced in the United States proper. In our own country between the Atlantic and the Pacific, from British America on the north, to Mexico on the south, we have such a variety of resources from the soil and the mountains, from the forests and the plains, as to make us almost absolutely independent of the world's markets, if by chance we should be isolated from them. It is true that no part of the United States is in the tropics, yet in Southern California and Florida the balmy climate makes the cultivation of most of the more important tropical plants possible. In Southern California is located the largest olive orchard in the world. There are also others that outclass the olive groves of the Mediterranean in size. Only in a limited area of central and southern California, and in New Mexico and Arizona, can the olive be produced, in this country. It is quite certain, therefore, that there will not be an over production. Olive orchards in Italy are looked upon as perpetual fountains of wealth. It is more than a hundred years since the first of these orchards was planted by the Spanish mission fathers of California, who did so much to influence the early industries and life of that state when it was a part of Spanish Mexico. The success of their olive-tree cultivation proved the adaptability of the climate, and ever since that time the industry has been steadily growing. From the olives that are grown in California is produced from 24 to 31 per cent of oil. They are richer and more palatable, when pickled, than are the imported green olives from Italy. The demand for ripe olives is steadily on the increase, and in the year 1902 it was about 30 per cent more than in the preceding year. The older the olive tree becomes, the more valuable it is to its owner, because of its prolific bearing. The wood of olive trees is highly prized by cabinet makers, for it is exceedingly hard and susceptible to a high polish. This mammoth enterprise is located at Sylmar, twenty miles from Los Angeles, California, in a beautiful amphitheater in the Sierra Madre mountains. The ranch contains more than 120,000 trees. There are 1,200 acres under cultivation, covering an area whose greatest length is three miles and whose breadth is two and one-half miles. Each acre contains 110 trees, and it is estimated will produce 2,000 gallons of olives yearly for the next 20 years. This amount will make 250 gallons of oil, which, at $2 per gallon, will make the revenue $500 per acre. There are forty miles of roads within the ranch. Two hundred and ten thousand dollars has been invested in the orchard and $15,000 in the factory. The crop of 1903 is valued at $225,000. Although the olive tree has been cultivated for more than 4,000 years, and olives have formed a staple food of some of the oldest races of earth, yet the young orchard at Sylmar is ten times as large as the largest olive orchard in Spain or the Holy Land. One hundred and fifty men are employed in gathering the olives in harvest time, which is throughout the months of November, December, January, and on into February. The olive berries frequently weigh down the branches until they touch the ground. Two hundred pounds is a good average day's pick, at an average wage of about $1.50 per day. The Sylmar ranch was planted about 1894, and the trees yield about 50 pounds of olives each. An olive tree does not come into bearing until it is four or five years of age. As the trees are supposed to live 4,000 years, indeed, some of the trees on the Mount of Olives, in the Holy Land, are known to be over 3,000 years old—an olive orchard may be reckoned on permanently. The big olive orchard at Sylmar presents a vision of surpassing loveliness. As far as the eye can reach it is one sweeping, billowy expanse of silver gray. The olive trees themselves are not unlike willows in their graceful, somewhat drooping, silhouette. The trees are arranged in orderly rows, and near at hand one sees the peculiarly beautiful shade known as olive green, which becomes a silver gray whenever a breath of wind discloses the under side of the leaf. In the distance the perspective reduces the size and assembles the trees, producing an effect much like a waving field of grain. The earth on the surface is always carefully pulverized, and, consequently, the water has been drawn up by capillary attraction. There is a strong underground seepage from the surrounding hills. In Sicily, olive trees have been known to attain enormous size, one having grown to the dimensions of 26 feet in circumference, with an expanse at the top of fully 150 feet. Italy produces, annually, 70,000,000 gallons of olive oil; Spain, 23,000,000, and the United States, about 7,000,000. The olive berry always grows on new wood, and, in order to increase the yield, the tree is "cut back" and new wood springs out, which bears fruit the second year. It is said that the roots of the olive tree extend as far into the earth as the branches rise above the soil. The olives are carefully gathered in canvas buckets made for this purpose, and are brought to the factory in spring wagons, to keep them from bruising. The berries are gathered when ripe, although "ripe" olives are frequently "green" in color. After they reach the factory the olives are graded into "ones," "twos," or "threes," according to size. They are then put into a solution of one pound of lye to ten gallons of water. This takes out the bitterness. Here they remain a week to ten days. Then the lye is soaked out by fresh running water, and if they are for table use they are put. into a solution of brine, where they remain permanently until bottled up or shipped away. The olives to be used for oil are gathered from the tree a good deal riper than those used for the table. The oil is extracted by a series of "crushers" and hydraulic presses, which are composed of materials that will not absorb odors, stone and metal being used as much as is possible. HOW RUBBER IS MADE TO-DAY |