SUMMER MEETING. 67 



In May, when the gardens are a sheet of bloom, the harvest begins. 

 The roses are of several kinds, but all single, or nearly so — pale pink 

 or white, and very much like our wild roses. Early in the morning the 

 pickers begin, while the dew is on the flowers. The petals are taken 

 from the stalks, and at once put into great copper alembics, capable of 

 holding about 240 pounds of water. Into each of these alembics, with 

 their downward-pointing nozzles, are put 180 pounds of water, and 25 

 pounds of rose-leaves. This is then distilled till the turbid rose-water 

 amounts to 25 pounds. The boilers are emptied, cleansed and the pro- 

 cess is repeated. The turbid fluid is again distilled, and then allowed 

 to remain at rest. On the surface of this double-distilled rose-water 

 the precious essential oil rises like a greenish or yellowish scum. This 

 Is skimmed off by means of a conical spoon, with a small hole in the 

 bottom to allow the water to run away. The appliances are all very 

 Tude, and there must necessarily be much waste in a material so pre- 

 vious. According to estimates made at Kasanlik, it takes about 4000 

 pounds of roses to make one pound of oil. And from 4000 to 6000 

 pounds of roses are the largest crops raised upon an (English) acre 

 of land. The price for the pure attar is about $4 per ounce. 



Most of our most beautiful and successful roses come from Eng- 

 land, where the prices asked for new roses are moderate — $2.50 retail 

 and about $1 apiece by wholesale, for a plant, being the usual price; 

 while the French roses, about 50 new varieties of which come from a 

 single establishment each year, average double that amount. Out of 

 these 50, 49, perhaps, prove of little worth and are cast aside. This 

 may be due to the unsuitableness of our climate, if they are used as 

 bedders, or to the variety not being prolific, or to its being unfitted for 

 early forcing, if for hot-houses. 



One of the foremost rose culturists in the country tells me that he 

 invested $1500 in the much vaunted and beautiful rose. Her Majesty 

 the Queen. He bought 1000 plants at about $1 a plant when the 

 retail price was $2.50, and his money was sunk, lost ! The rose proved 

 suitable neither as a hot-house nor as an out door rose, and probably 

 would not do so north of the parallel of Charlston, S. C. And yet the 

 blossoms of this rose sold once for $5 each, when he held probably the 

 monopoly of it. 



Eoses have for several reasons never attained the prices reached 

 by tulips and orchids. They are not the luxuries of the rich so much 

 . as the heritage of the race. Great sums of money have been spent 

 upon roses, and lost; but it was by the addition of smaller sums that 

 the aggregate became large. A single plant rarely brings over $3 ; but 

 a large sale of any variety proving a failure will, of course, be a 



