— 60 — ■ 



loss whatever. The condenser is rinsed with a little water, the distillate 

 mixed with 3 to 4 cc. solution of silver nitrate (1 : 10) and heated 

 on a water-bath until the conglomeration of silver sulphide is well 

 deposited, and the liquid is absolutely water -white. The precipitate 

 is collected by filtering the hot liquid on a chemically pure filter of 

 5 to 8 cm. diameter, the flask and precipitate washed one after the 

 other with a small quantity of hot water, alcohol and ether, and dried 

 at 8o° C. until its weight remains constant. The silver sulphide thus 

 obtained, when multiplied with 8,602, indicates the percentage of 

 mustard oil in the seed examined. 



Mustard oil, artificial. Our plant for the manufacture of this 

 oil has been fully employed. The consumption was normal; the prices 

 are unchanged. 



Neroli oil, French. The blossom -harvest in the department 

 Alpes-Mari times has been fairly normal this year; the yield is estimated 

 at about 1 800 000 kilos. The oil-content of the blossoms was also 

 favourable. For this reason a movement to increase the prices of 

 neroli oil, which was set on foot from various quarters, was all the 

 more surprising. 



This increase is a consequence of the acute differences which 

 have broken out between the manufacturers and the growers, leading 

 to the formation of a syndicate of the latter which controls about 

 two-thirds of the entire quantity of blossoms. The object of this 

 syndicate is to raise the price of the blossoms, which has been con- 

 tinually depressed by the manufacturers and has become ruinous for 

 the growers, up to 65 francs per 100 kilos for the whole season, 

 and if this price cannot be obtained, the syndicate itself will distil 

 the blossoms. It is even said that the syndicate has destroyed about 

 40 000 kilos blossoms which could not be distilled this year owing to 

 lack of apparatus. For the next season, arrangements would be made 

 for working up the whole quantity of blossoms of the syndicate. It 

 is further stated that the syndicate has distilled this year about 300 kilos 

 neroli oil, but it may possibly not be such a simple matter to dispose 

 of this oil at the comparatively high price asked, the less so, as 

 firms outside the syndicate are offering at lower prices. The question 

 is now: Will the syndicate succeed in bringing the majority of the 

 blossom-producers under one flag, and keeping them together? Ex- 

 perience teaches that as a rule such trusts come to grief owing to 

 internal quarrels. 



It must be admitted that the prices which the manufacturers paid 

 for the blossoms frequently barely covered the cost of picking, and 

 from this point of view one might perhaps wish success to the "Societe 

 cooperative des Proprietaires de Fleurs d'oranger". 



