— 43 — 



nately it has proved to be impossible to gather, before the end of the 

 calendar year, trustworthy statistics relating to the quantities of essential 

 oils sent out in each month from the various ports of shipment in Sicily; 

 but there is hardly room for error in assuming that they were approxi- 

 mately equal to the shipments during the same period of the preced- 

 ing year. 



Bergamot Oil. When the last manufacturing season was ended, 

 there still remainded on hand in Calabria sufficient quantities of oil to 

 cover without difficulty the requirements of foreign countries; consequently 

 the prices, which had advanced to c4i 36. — in the course of the winter, 

 and still stood at &ii 32. — in March, began to sag, and slowly receded 

 to oil 30. — and c4i 29.50. For a time it seemed as if a further decline 

 were in store, owing to the effect upon the market of the promising con- 

 ditions during the flowering and setting of the bergamot trees, and the 

 prospective good crop, but this decline did not actually set in; on the 

 contrary, the owners, all of whom, thanks to the ready sales during the 

 winter months, had sufficient cash at their disposal to carry on their other 

 branches of business, held on firmly to their oil, and could not be induced 

 to make further concessions in price. And when in July, as happens 

 almost every season, the smaller and less hardy fruit began to fall (but 

 on this occasion apparently to a larger extent than usual), the hopes of 

 an abnormal crop vanished into thin air, and the owners maintained their 

 prices more firmly still, until, at the present time, these range from 

 M 30— to cM 30.50. 



The still existing stocks are estimated at from 10000 to 12000 kilos; 

 not an important figure for this time of the year, and if the demand from 

 abroad should remain steady and regular, even although not particularly 

 brisk, this stock will probably be pretty well exhausted at the commence- 

 ment of the new crop. 



It is true that the outlook for this crop is no longer so favourable 

 to-day as it was at the beginning of the summer, but it is still classed 

 as "fair average", and it is therefore probable that the coming manu- 

 facturing season will yield a greater quantity of oil than that of last year. 

 It is therefore scarcely to be feared that the prices next winter will again 

 be so high as in the winter of 1909. Up to the present transactions in 

 new season's oil for delivery have been merely sporadic, at prices corre- 

 sponding to about 28 cM. 



Lemon Oil. With respect to this article, I pointed out in my report 

 of last April that the new Royal Commissionary of the Camera Agrumana 

 had succeeded after all in finding the necessary capital to enable him 

 to make the customary advances to the manufacturers of citrate of lime 

 and lemon oil, and that the latter thereupon immediately suspended their 

 sales of lemon oil, as a result of which the price of this oil towards the 



