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all the lavender flowers and all the lavender oil obtainable at high 

 prices, higher at least than those which the French firms are prepared 

 to concede. It is said that owing to this policy the bulk of this 

 important essential oil during the last 3 or 4 years has passed into 

 the hands of foreigners, without any attempt being made to put a 

 stop to such proceedings. As an example, it is reported that this 

 year the firm in question paid 1000 fcs. for two plots of lavender land 

 for which last year only 200 fcs. was paid. By this means the firm 

 in question is said to be building up a dangerous monopoly which 

 will hand over the industry of Grasse to the mercies of the German 

 chemists. 



As a result thereof, some mild outcry is being raised for State 

 assistance, but at the same time it is recognised that the State could 

 only do very little in the matter. It is also difficult to make any 

 serious reproaches to the owners of the lavender-plantations, and the 

 critics therefore content themselves to prophesy all sorts of future 

 ills for these owners because, it is said, it is certain that the prices 

 cannot remain at the present level. 



As a counter-stroke, the Communes are advised to cultivate under 

 their own management, and on a large scale, a particularly good 

 variety of lavender plants, to produce locally an oil of a quality much 

 superior to that now produced, and then to leave the other planters, 

 including the firm of Schimmel, to get rid of their inferior oil as best 

 they may. It is said that such plantations are already conducted 

 elsewhere with the greatest possible success, and that therefore the 

 result is, so to say, guaranteed. 



It is also admitted that the demand is far in excess of the pro- 

 duction, that good results are obtainable with good qualities, and that 

 it is therefore unnecessary to labour literally pour le roi de Frusse 

 ("working for the King of Prussia" is a French colloquialism for working 

 for nothing). 



Now, when we look a little at these assertions through a magnifying 

 glass, they really amount to nothing else than to an acknowledgment 

 of the alertness of the firm of Schimmel, inasmuch as the policy of 

 that firm really leads to the improvement of the lavender plantations, 

 just as it has been mainly due to that firm that a strict eye has been 

 kept on the dealers in lavender oil, who used to adulterate their wares 

 in a truly shameless manner. Even firms of some importance used 

 not to be above foisting upon their old and large customers in Ger- 

 many, and probably also in other countries, lavender oil which had 

 been doctored to the largest possible extent, for it is quite well known 

 in France that even among the largest perfumery manufacturers in 

 Germany there are very few indeed whose laboratories are equal to 

 the task of examining analytically the oils supplied to them. This 

 made such practices, which are a gross abuse of confidence, all the 

 more reprehensible. Who, therefore, can blame German firms if they 

 try to secure as large a quantity of pure oil as possible direct from 

 the producers, or if they purchase the plants from the growers in 

 order to distil them themselves and thus to be in a position to offer 

 their clients a guaranteed pure article? Similarly, we shall be sincerely 

 grateful to those French Communes who will cultivate a finer quality 

 of lavender plants on their fields, and thereby enable us to buy from 

 them a better oil than in the past, an oil which is not inferior in 

 purity to the other kinds which are offered, while surpassing it in 



