i6 



Commercial notes and scientific information 

 on Essential Oils. 



Almond Oil, bitter. We refer below to the position of the 

 market in this article. 



Almond Oil, pressed from almonds, Ph. G. IV. Our sales 

 of this specialty still continue to increase, and at times the demand 

 has been so great that our output was unable to keep pace with it. 

 Generally speaking, the prices of almonds have undergone no change, 

 for fortunately the rumour that about 8,000 bales of almonds had 

 been destroyed in the catastrophe at Messina proved to be exaggerated, 

 and the advance in prices which resulted thereby was consequently only 

 a passing one. The producing districts in Sicily, which are in the 

 neighbourhood of Girgenti, have fortunately remained unaffected by 

 the earthquake. Efforts have recently been made in Apulia, to in- 

 crease the demand for the article, and reports have been spread, with 

 this end in view, that there has never been any instance of three 

 good harvests in sucession. Moreover, it is said that owing to the 

 drought which prevailed last year the plantations have seriously suffered 

 in parts. 



Almond Oil, pressed from apricot kernels. Since apricot 

 kernels have become an article of speculation, it grows more and 

 more difficult to give a commercial report on this commodity. The 

 fear expressed in our last Report that a fresh effort would be made 

 to drive up the prices to the high level which they reached in the 

 course of the summer has fortunately not been realised, for which no 

 doubt the general lack of enterprise is the chief reason. It is to be 

 noted that not only in Damascus, but also in all other districts where 

 apricot kernels are produced, the stocks were very much reduced 

 towards the end of the year, and even in California, where a bumper 

 crop was talked of as early as the spring of 1908, nearly all the 

 supplies have gone into consumption. The stocks in the hands of 

 middlemen in Hamburg, Marseilles, Genoa and Trieste were also 

 practically cleared at the close of the year, with the result that prices 

 rose to about 78 marks per 100 kilos. If a more lively demand should 

 now ensue, — a contingency which, however, is hardly to be expected 

 in view of the general state of business — it is not impossible that 

 the speculators may gain the upper hand and that we may be face 

 to face with a scarcity similar to that which prevailed a year ago. 

 At the present time it is still impossible to form an opinion as to 

 the result of the current year's crop in the principal growing districts, 

 Syria and California; and it is therefore quite out of the question to 



