Article January 29, 1903 Issue

Olive Culture in California

The Chicago Tribune

THE largest olive orchard in the world, and probably the most remarkable and successful experiment in the history of American agriculture, is located at Sylmar, twenty miles from Los Angeles, Cal.

The ranch contains more than 120,000 trees. There are twelve hundred acres under cultivation. An additional eight hundred acres will shortly be planted to olives. There are forty miles of roads within the ranch, and one could drive all day without leaving its boundaries. Two hundred and ten thousand dollars has been invested in the orchard and $15.000 in the factory which treats the olive crop. Yet olive culture in the United States, which was at first deemed a great experiment, has proven successful, for the crop this season from the Sylmar ranch is valued at $225,000. when the entire two thousand acres shall be in bearing, at the present rate of increase, the ranch will produce an annual income of between $300,000 and $500,000.

Although the olive-tree has been cultivated for more than four thousand 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. This is the first occasion upon which olive raising has ever been attempted upon a really wholesale American basis, and the outcome of this year's crop was awaited with keen interest, as it was a crucial demonstration of the possibility and profitableness of olive culture in this country. Added to this, it is said that the American olive tastes better than its European relative, and yields a far superior quality of oil.

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