The wood is beautifully veined, and has an agreeable smell.  It is in great esteem with cabinet makers, on account of the fine polish of which it is susceptible.

The sunny slopes of hills are best suited to its natural habits.  Layering is the most certain mode of propagating this fruit, although it grows freely from the seed, provided it has first been steeped for twelve hours in hot water or yeast.

Olives intended for preservation are gathered before they are ripe.  In pickling, the object is to remove their bitterness and preserve them green, by impregnating them with a brine.  For this purpose various methods are employed.  The fruit being gathered are placed in a lye, composed of one part of quicklime to six of ashes of young wood sifted.  Here they remain for half a day, and are then put into fresh water, being renewed every 24 hours; from this they are removed into a brine of common salt dissolved in water, to which add some aromatic plants.  The olive will in this manner remain good for twelve months.  For oil, the ripe fruit is gathered in November; the oil, unlike other plants, being obtained from the pericarp, and immediately bruised in a mill, the stones of which are set so wide as not to crush the kernel.  The pulp is then subjected to the press in bags made of rushes; and, by means of a gentle pressure, the best or virgin oil flows first.  A second, and afterwards a third quality of oil is obtained, by moistening the residuum, breaking the kernel, &c., and increasing the pressure.  When the fruit is not sufficiently ripe, the recent oil has a bitterish taste, and when too ripe it is fatty.

The following are the present market prices of olive oil in Liverpool, (October, 1853,) and they are 40 per cent, higher than a few years ago:—­Galipoli, per tun of 252 gallons, L68; Spanish, L64; Levant, L60.  French olives, in half barrels of two gallons, are worth L3 to L4; Spanish, in two gallon kegs, 9s. to 10s.

The preserved or pickled olives, so admired as an accompaniment to wine, are, as we have seen the green unripe fruit, deprived of part of their bitterness by soaking them in water, and then preserved in an aromatised solution of salt.

The marc of olives after the oil has been expressed, indeed, the refuse cake of all oil plants, is most valuable, either as manure or for feeding cattle.

More than 29,000 acres are under culture with the olive in the Austrian empire, Venice, Dalmatia, Lombardy, Carinthia, and Carniola.  The climate of Dalmatia is highly suitable for the olive, and the oil is better than that produced in most parts of Italy.  Nearly 17,000 cwt. are annually obtained.