THE ODOUR OF ROSE. 41 
are principally used for the manufacture of rose pommade and 
the spirituous extract therefrom, the demand for both of which 
for France and abroad is very great. 
The variety of rose there grown is the R. centifolia, Linn, The 
bushes are set in rows, but not so close together as to form thick 
hedges as in Bulgaria, nor do the plants attain such a height. 
Ground gently sloping to the south-east is preferred. Young 
shoots are taken from a five-year old tree, and are planted in 
ground which has been well broken up to a depth of three or four 
feet. When the young plant begins to branch out, the top of it 
is cut off about a foot from the ground. During the first year 
the farmer picks off the buds that appear, im order to develop 
and strengthen the plant. In the fourth or fifth year the tree is 
in its full yielding condition. A rose-tree will live to a good age, 
but does not yield much after its seventh year; at that period it 
is dug up and burned, and the land planted with some other plant 
for one year. 
The flowering begins about mid-April, and lasts through May 
to early June, a time so short that difficulty is experienced in 
dealing with the enormous quantity of blossom produced, for of 
course loss of perfume occurs if the flowers are not immediately 
used. The buds on the point of opening are picked in the early 
morning. On some days as many as 150 tons of roses are 
gathered in the province of the Alpes Maritimes. At the factory 
the petals are first completely separated from the green parts; 
this work is done by women, seated at long benches under a shed. 
The separated petals, of which there are sometimes as much as 
four tons accumulated on the flcor at one time in one factory, are 
then either distilled with water for the production of rose-water, 
or for the otto, or they are subjected to the process of maceration 
in warm fat or in olive-oil for the purpose of obtaining the per- 
fumed pommade or oil, and these products afterwards finished off 
by the process of “ enfleurage.” From such pommade and oil 
the “extrait de rose” is afterwards obtained. These several 
processes are hereafter described. 
