SCIENTIFIC AND OTHER NOTES ON ESSENTIAL OILS. 27 
of consumers of lavender oil, an article which is used more or less in almost every 
perfumery and soap factory, by pretending that the considerable rise in prices which 
the lavender oil market experienced during the last two years had been brought about 
solely by our entering the circle of the southern French distillers. It was said that 
the lavender-gathering population had been made more independent by our granting 
disproportionately high prices for flowers year by year, and that the perfumers and 
soapmakers had to thank us for having to pay higher prices now than twenty years 
ago. It would lead too far, were we to touch upon this question once again. We 
have often enough had to refer to it in the various editions our Semi-annual Report 
during the last few years, to which we can refer those of our readers who are 
interested in the polemic in question. The true fact is, however, that the Frenchmen, 
and they alone, are the guilty parties, for their blind fury against the “German intruders” 
has always found expression in their steadily and invariably outbidding our buyer, an 
expert gentleman, native of southern France, and devoted to us, in his negotiations 
with the flower gatherers, or contractors, with a view to make it impossible for him 
to secure the quantities of flowers necessary to keep our establishments going. Much 
to the disgust of our adversaries we have more than once simply stopped our purchases 
of flowers, the result being that the hotspurs in question were saddled with their dear 
flowers whereas we, by erecting and fitting up a few flying (ambulant) distilleries, in 
places where flowers were to be had in abundance and cheaper than in the immediate 
neighbourhood of our own distilleries, were able to cover our requirements more 
advantageously. We may here point out with satisfaction and recognition that a few 
serious firms among the number of our southern French competitors were ready to 
come to an understanding with us, the result being that the prices to be offered to 
the gatherers were mutually agreed upon. In this way we succeeded in silencing at 
least a part of the hotheads. If 1913 had not brought a short crop and if, in 1914, 
owing to the sudden outbreak of the war, we had not been compelled to stop work in 
these factories, these arrangements would surely have produced more favourable con- 
ditions as regards prices, for the 1914 crop promised to be very good. But the 
calling to arms of the major part of the working population will most likely have had 
the result that the crop could not be brought in entirely, and that distillation will have 
been within very narrow limits. To make matters worse, the considerable production 
of the whole of our plant had to be left out of the calculation this time. 
As we have seen from French newspapers, our two factories in Barréme and Sault 
have been sequestrated by the French Government. What will happen? “The men of 
patriotic minds” will have found little difficulty in gaining admission to our establishments, 
they will have studied the plant according to all the rules of the art, they may possibly 
destroy everything emanating from Germany and vent their fury on the “lavender 
robbers” by establishing similar factories in all suitable places, in order to drive us 
away definitely. It is just possible that these gentlemen might meet with the disap- 
pointment that they cannot find “those excellent chemists” to guide and direct the 
latest creations of the French spirit of enterprise. But even if everything were to 
work satisfactorily, and if the Frenchmen succeed in producing qualities similar to ours, 
we shall only be glad in the interest of our numerous friends in the perfumery trade. 
We never erected our factories down there in order to “gain millions’, as mentioned 
in the vituperations under discussion, but chiefly with a view to bring about a general 
improvement of quality by the introduction of modern and really scientific distillation 
methods. It is hardly flattering to the Frenchmen that it required the energy of German 
“lavender robbers” to teach them in their own country how lavender oil should be 
