d 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 vegetables it
will prepare, and render fit and comfortable 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 render 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 be cultivated among the olive
trees without injuring them. The northern limits of this tree are the
mountains of the Cevennes, from about the meridian of Carcassonne to
the Rhone, and from thence, the Alps and Apennines as far as Genoa, I
know, and how much farther I am not informed. The shelter of these
mountains may be considered as equivalent to a degree and a half of
latitude, at least, because westward of the commencement of the
Cevennes, there are no olive trees in 43-1/2 deg. or even 43 deg. of latitude,
whereas, we find them _now_ on the Rhone at Pierrelatte, in 44-1/2 deg.,
and _formerly_ they were at Tains, above the mouth of the Isere, in
45 deg., sheltered by the near approach of the Cevennes and Alps, which
only leave there a passage for the Rhone. Whether such a shelter exists
or not in the States of South Carolina and Georgia, I know not. But
this we may say, either that it exists or that it is not necessary
there, because we know that they produce the orange in open air; and
wherever the orange will stand at all, experience shows that the olive
will stand well, being a hardier tree. Notwithstanding the great
quantities of oil made in France, they have not enough for their own
consumption, and, therefore, import from other countries. This is an
article, the consumption of which will always keep pace with its
production. Raise it, and it begets its own demand. Little is carried