— 96 — I 



The report of the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture gives the flower- 

 crop as 9525000 kilos and the oil-production as only 2710 kilos, but our 

 informant assures us that his own statements are the more accurate. For 

 the flowers 60 centimes per kilo was paid this year, the highest price on 

 record. The considerable increase in the quotations of rose oil which it 

 was necessary to make last May is sufficiently justified by the statements 

 made above. The tendency continues firm and we scarcely think that 

 anything is to be gained by putting off the time of buying still further. 



In view of the inordinately high prices of the natural oil we recommend 

 to the attention of our customers our substitution -products Rose 

 Schimmel 8{ Co. (Red Rose) and Synthetic Rose Oil Schimmel 8j Co., both 

 of which are described on p. 124 of the present Report. 



Rose Oil, German. In contradistinction to the failure of the crop 

 in Bulgaria our plantations at Miltitz which, as already stated, have been 

 considerably enlarged last year, have this season given an unusually 

 abundant yield, all the conditions for the favourable development of the 

 flowers having been fulfilled by the state of the weather in May and June. 

 The reason why, in spite of this fact, we have distilled but little rose oil 

 is that the manufacture of our speciality Rose Schimmel $ Co. "Red Rose" 

 (see p. 124) has absorbed very large quantities of flowers. Rose water is 

 again available in sufficient quantities. 



As was to be foreseen, the scarcity of rose oil has been responsible 

 for the display of considerable energy on the part of sophisticators. 



We give below a comparison of several samples of rose oil which 

 have lately been submitted to us for our opinion or offered to us for sale, 

 all of which, as a result of examination, had to be rejected as adulterated. 

 For purposes of comparison we also quote the limits of value which have 

 been observed by us in commercial oils of normal condition. 



The samples Nos. 1 to 3, besides showing too high a refractive index, 

 possessed too great a total geraniol content, which points to the presence 

 of palmarosa oil or of a similar substance. In addition, No. 1 contained 

 about 3 p. c. spirit. 



In Nos. 4, 5 and 8, and particularly in No. 9, the high optical rotation f 

 caused suspicion of an addition of gurjun balsam oil, to the employment 

 of which for the purpose of adulterating rose oil attention was called in 

 our last April Report, p. 108. Samples Nos. 5 and 8 also contained spirit, 

 an admixture which was likewise observed in Nos. 6 and 7. 



A more thorough examination was in most cases impossible, partly 

 because the quantity of oil submitted to us was insufficient even for the 

 determination of the usual constants, as is shown by the hiatus in several 

 parts of the table. 



