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advancing more and more. America especially has been an indefatig- 

 able purchaser; during the first eight months of this year 367138 kilos 

 were shipped to that country, against 259638 kilos in the same 

 period last year, that is to say, an increase of 107500 kilos. 



It goes without saying that under those circumstances the manu- 

 facturers and speculators protected their stocks to the utmost, and 

 only parted with them at constantly advancing prices; and that the 

 two Associations had an easy task, in view of such a state of affairs, 

 to control the situation, and manipulate the market after their own 

 sweet will. As a consequence, the prices have since the beginning 

 of March advanced rapidly to 13.50 marks in April and 14.50 marks 

 in June, and finally reached their highest level in July with 17.25 marks. 



Since that time the article fluctuates between 16.50 and 16.75 marks, 

 according to the stronger or weaker daily demand. In view of the 

 fact that we have still a two and a half month's consumption period 

 before us, until the new oil arrives, the available stocks must be 

 called extremely small and we have to face the possibility that the market 

 will be completely sold out, and that it will be impossible to execute 

 the orders coming in with old oil. A weakening of the price of prompt 

 oil below the one mentioned above is in all probability out of the 

 question. 



Now if we consider that the last lemon crop has been very rich, 

 and that the previous crop also was hardly less important, we may 

 take it that the great increase in the consumption during last year 

 cannot be attributed to temporary causes. On the contrary, the con- 

 viction must force itself upon us, that the annually increasing lemon 

 oil production is not equal to the consumption which increases from 

 year to year at a still greater rate, — in a word, that the world's 

 consumption is larger than the oil production here. Under those 

 circumstances we must rejoice in the fact that the new lemon crop 

 does not look bad. Although here and there larger districts promise 

 only a feeble harvest, the deficiency below the total production of 

 last year does probably not exceed on the average 10 to 15%, and 

 this difference may easily be equalised by a greater oil-content of 

 the fruit. 



From this it appears that in the present year the causes are absent 

 which would render probable an advance in the price of lemon oil 

 beyond the limits reached to-day, and it is to be hoped that in the 

 coming year this article will be subject to smaller fluctuations than 

 during the past season. This may be expected all the more, as the 

 two Associations had really no grounds for driving the prices of lemon 

 oil to a higher level. The original idea leading to the founding of 

 the Associations was that of bringing the lemon cultivation, which for 

 many years had been carried on almost at a loss, into a better con- 



