Scientific and other notes on essential oils. 55 



as compared with the 2800 kilos of 1916 and 3400 kilos of 1915. The great demand 

 for grains, caused through the war, naturally diverted the interest of the Bulgarian 

 farmers from the rose fields, many hectares of which are said to have been converted 

 into corn-fields, as these offer better chances. It is true that the present condition of 

 the rose oil market is not very encouraging, the export having sunk to 2100 kilos in 

 1915 and as low as 1600 kilos in 1916, against 3200 in 1914 and 5500 in 1913. The 

 producers of rose oil are reported to have lost a fair amount of money with the prices 

 of the last years, as the sales were slow, there being no inclination for speculative 

 undertakings, and living became more expensive from week to week. Recently, nearly 

 all Bulgarian landowners have become rich through the trade with cereals, tobacco, 

 beans, and potatoes, so that they are in a position to reserve their stocks of rose oil 

 for better times. They not only succeeded in preventing a further fall but in raising 

 the market price by about 1000 marks, so that 2200 marks or so are asked for 1 kilo 

 of the 1917 crop. Large quantities — the figure mentioned is about 3500 kilos — of 

 the crops from 1914 up to 1916 are said to be in their hands, while merchants, banks 

 and other middlemen hold a further 2500 kilos. Cheap offers from the latter circles 

 indicate from the very beginning that the article is "faked" a good deal, a fact which 

 was demonstrated by the results of various examinations. 



According to the Deutsche Balkan- Zeitung of June 25 th , 1917, the association of 

 rose oil producers in Kazanlik published an appeal asking all their fellow-manufactures 

 in the kingdom to unite and organize themselves. The purpose is to exclude all 

 unfair competition and to supply only pure genuine rose oil, thus regulating the price 

 at the same time. The association is said to have bought up the whole last year's 

 crop (?) and to be in negotiations about this year's. After the previous failures, we 

 feel inclined to doubt that it will be possible to "gather all rose oil producers around 

 one flag" and to reach the goal of thoroughly abolishing all unfair dealings in the 

 rose oil industry, striven after in vain for so many years. 



Rosemary Oil. As owing to the war no supplies are available from Austria- 

 Hungary, it seems , that the interest for distilling oil of rosemary revives in France. 

 So there is an article by H. Blin 1 ), entitled La distillation clu romarin en Roussillon, 

 in which the production of said oil in this most southern part of France is discussed. 

 Rosemary grows in masses on the chalky soil of Roussillon, Provence and Languedoc, 

 and it further occurs in the mountains, such as the south-eastern Pyrenees, the Basses- 

 Alpes, in the Gard, Drome, Var, Alpes-Maritimes, Vaucluse departments, Mont Ventoux, 

 on the Montagne de Lure, in the Luberon, the Dauphine, the Cevennes, Tunis, Spain, 

 Corsica, Sicily, 8jc. 



Rosemary is very sensitive to cold, so that frosts are nearly always disastrous. 

 In the south-eastern departments it is often destroyed by flocks of sheep. According 

 to Blin it would not be sufficient to forbid pasturing on the tracts of land where rose- 

 mary grows, but the cultivation of this plant ought to be encouraged. Rosemary thrives 

 on dry, pervious soil in sunny places and is propagated in autumn by means of slips, 

 cuttings or suckers, or in March and April by means of seeds. After two or three 

 years it may be cut, the plants being ready for distillation as soon as the flowers 

 have opened and before they are dried up. Rosemary flowers from beginning of June 

 into September. The Roussillon pickers generally are paid 1 to l 1 / 2 franc per 100 kilos. 

 All parts of the plant are distilled, except the woody stalk. The leaves supply the best oil. 



x ) Parfumerie moderne 10 (1917), 24, 44. 



