- 6 3 - 



Sodium nitrate 2 °°/o 



Potassium chloride 2 °°/o 



Superphosphate 18/20 . . . 6o°/ 



This manure is applied in March, at the time when the soil is first 

 tilled, in the proportion of 500 kilos per hectare. The results obtained 

 thereby in earlier experiments (1905 on the Mont Ventoux) were very- 

 promising. The plants were not only distinctly richer in blossoms, but 

 the oil-content in the blossoms also increased, so that a yield of 2 8 kilos 

 oil per hectare was obtained against 12 kilos oil without the manure. 



This shows at once the great advantages connected with a rational 

 cultivation of lavender, which place the latter in one line with 

 the cultivation of cereals or potatoes, etc., the more so as for lavender 

 a portion of the extensive areas can be utilised which at present are 

 lying waste and give a desolate and forlorn aspect to the mountain 

 side. In any case the cultivation of lavender offers very good prospects, 

 and it may become for the farmers a very important source of revenue, as 

 the use of lavender oil is constantly increasing, and a direct collapse of 

 the prices need therefore not be feared, even with a large supply. 



We can add to the foregoing that we also have commenced last 

 year experiments in the cultivation of lavender in the district of 

 Barreme. We are glad to say that this matter has everywhere been 

 received with great interest, so that the cultivation of lavender there 

 may be considered as definitely settled. 



As we were able to state in our last Reports, we have succeeded 

 in our factory situated in Barreme, Departement des Basses Alpes, in 

 producing oils of a considerably higher ester-content (about 5O°/ ) than 

 those known in the trade up to the present. 



This fact is explained very simply by the difference in the distil- 

 lation process. The method employed in the South of France for 

 the distillation of lavender is water-distillation, in which the 

 distillation-material is immersed in water, the latter heated direct and 

 the oil driven over with the water vapours. For a portable distillation 

 plant it is in all countries almost the only method in use. But for 

 various reasons it is of all possible methods of distilling the worst. 

 For lavender it is particularly disastrous, as its action has in a high 

 degree the effect of saponifying the esters. 



In our Barreme factory, on the other hand, we produce the lav- 

 ender oil by dry steam distillation. In order to save the esters, 

 the distillation is carried on as rapidly as possible, as the influence 

 of the agents which have a decomposing action on the essential oils, 

 depends in the first place on the length of time during which they 

 are allowed to act. This, of course, means waste of steam, but also 

 preservation of esters. 



