Lesser Importations


 TROPICAL AND SIMILAR CROPS
 OLIVES

 The history of olive cultivation in the United States goes back
more than three centuries. Franciscan fathers first set out orchards
in California during the time of the Spanish missions. Two
centuries later, the remnants of these orchards were found in
San Diego County and repropagated there. Early attempts were
made to cultivate the olive in other sections of the country as
well. In 1755, Henry Laurens of Charleston, South Carolina,
imported olive trees and raised the fruit. A colony at New
Smyrna, Florida, planted olives in 1769. Fifteen years later, the
Society for the Promotion of Agriculture of South Carolina
imported olive cuttings.
 Already noted has been the high value Jefferson placed on the
olive and the Federal land grant to the Tombigbee vine and olive
colony in 1817. Charles Mason introduced olive stocks and cut-
tings from France in 1854. These were distributed in the
Carolinas and the southern states. Many other olive introductions
were made throughout the nineteenth century.
 The olive was not particularly successful in the East because
it required several years to come into bearing, and farmers wanted
quicker returns on their investment. Commissioner Le Duc
selected some of the best commercial varieties from Europe in
1878 in an effort to encourage olive cultivation, and in 1880 the
Department distributed 3,000 olive plants.
 Pickled olives were becoming popular, and by 1887 some
orchards of more than forty acres were thriving in California.
Growers in the southern states began experimenting with olive
culture about the same time. The Division of Gardens and
Grounds imported many European varieties in response to the
frequent requests for olive plants, and in 1892 it was shipping out
seedlings almost daily.
 COFFEE
 William Saunders discouraged would-be coffee growers by
pointing out that coffee required a continuous temperature of
above fifty degrees Fahrenheit. But Commissioner Le Duc inter-
ested himself in some coffee trees in Manatee County. Florida,
grown by Mrs. Julia Atzeroth from seed secured from Mexico
about 1875. Mrs. Atzeroth wrote Le Duc that she had protected