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Pimento Oil. At times suitable material was only procurable with 

 difficulty, and if notwithstanding this prices remained unchanged, this 

 has entirely been due to the fact that we allowed no opportunity to pass 

 of making advantageous purchases. The crop in Jamaica is said to be 

 belated this year, and reports from the island also state that owing to 

 the drought an insufficient output must be expected. It is therefore 

 probable that in the course of the next few months the quotations 

 will rise. 



Pine Needle Oils. We have received abundant fresh supplies of 

 Siberian pine needle oil, a variety of which the sale is still increasing, 

 but for these arrivals we have had to pay higher prices, as distilling is 

 said to be unremunerative under the price-conditions formerly prevailing. 

 We have nevertheless been able to content ourselves with a modest rise 

 in our quotations, and we merely desire to point out here that care is 

 desirable in purchasing Siberian pine needle oil, as the article is frequently 

 adulterated with pine tar oil. The oil is used for so many different pur- 

 poses that it may be described as one of the most popular adjuncts in 

 the preparation of all kinds of technical products. Pine needle oils from 

 Abies alba and Finns montana (Pinus pumilioj have been obtainable in any 

 desired quantity, and no price-fluctuations of any sort have occurred in 

 these oils. On the other hand the stocks of oil from cones of Abies alba 

 were drawing to an end early in the summer and prices became firmer. 

 We have again made arrangements for securing considerable supplies of 

 this season's distillation, which commenced in the month of September, 

 but for these supplies we have been compelled to pay higher prices, as 

 otherwise, it was said, the cone-collectors would have been unwilling to 

 continue their dangerous and difficult occupation. This season, for the 

 first time for many years, Switzerland has again entered the field in the 

 supply of this oil, and we have therefore been able to draw a portion of 

 our requirements from that country. In the Black Forest and in Thuringia 

 fair quantities of oil from cones of Abies alba are also prepared. The 

 demand is very animated indeed, and prices will therefore presumably 

 keep at their present level. 



By the courtesy of a business-friend in Berne we are enabled to give 

 in the present Report a few plates illustrative of the preparation of oil 

 from cones of Abies pectinata. The frontispiece shows a collector known as 

 a Breaker (beater), whose business it is to climb the highest tops of the 

 trees, where he picks and throws down the cones. The boys on either 

 side of the beater are the Leser (gatherers) who collect the cones from 

 the ground and pile them up in a shady place. The three other illustrations 

 depict distilling-plant and a "Brennhiltte" (still-shed). In one of them a 

 woman is seen breaking up the cones. 



