26 Report of Schimmel § Co. April/October 1917. 



Another, simply appalling lie, which was propagated in addition, some years 



ago the honourable "knight" in question called himself Marcel Provence 



was, that Schimmel's factory at Barreme was built and kept in working 



order with the only aim and object of spyism. As it was within so and so many 

 yards off the railway line, no special strategist was required to find out what this 

 meant, and so forth. One even "discovered" that a harmless gable ornament, put 

 up, as it was, by a French bricklayer on his own accord, represented the hated 

 spiked helmet, which had evidently been placed there as the symbol of Prussianism, 

 and one publically proclaimed oneself as saviour of the country on account of 

 having found out and unmasked this danger in time!! The common sense of the 

 French people must have come to a bad pass, if a journalist of the third or fourth 

 class may venture to put such nonsense before his readers without finding any 

 opposition. But everything seems to be possible in France, as long as it concerns 

 Germany and German firms. Then no nonsense is too nonsensical to be offered 

 to the public at once; the public believes everything, if it is only something spite- 

 fully hostile towards Germany. 



It was reserved for Schimmel's factories to show what pure lavender oil is 

 and ought to be, if it is distilled in the proper way. Before, the world had 

 to be satisfied with what Grasse firms chose to put before them as "pure" 

 oil of lavender. A glance at the French price-lists with their one or two dozens 

 of essences de Lavande " Mont - Blanc" , "extra", "fleurs mondees", "extrafine", 

 "surfine", "fine", u superieure" , 8jc., 8{c. must give food for thought to the reasoning 

 mind! But the French, who formerly were capable of thinking logically especially 

 in scientific and chemical matters, went so far as to assert that Schimmel's pro- 

 duct was made up, the best proof of it being that nobody in the South of France 

 had ever succeeded in distilling oils of so high a grade. In short ..... the articles 

 were all of this tenor for years . .... ad nauseam ..... and the less proof of 

 their veracity could be given, the greater the clatter, the more sullen the intrigues 

 and the systematical mischief-making". 



P. Maure 1 ) has been able to record especially good results with the cultivation of 

 lavender in the South of France. The peasants of the Basse-Provence had planted 

 their lavender plants too closely together in the hope of realizing greater profits by 

 this means. The average space between the plants only amounted to 50 and 60 cm., 

 and the consequence was that the plants in a short time were so cramped that light 

 and air were totally excluded. Maure accordingly recommended an intervening space 

 of at least a yard and a half. In 1914, plantations were therefore started at a height 

 of 340 m. on ground facing north as well as south. A southerly field was stocked 

 with plants of Lavandula delphinensis and fragrans which had been collected in the 

 Alpes du Divis at a height of 1200 m. The field was manured with artificial fertilizers, 

 hoed, and kept free from weeds. In 1916, this lavender produced an oil of the specific 

 gravity of 0.89029 (15°) and of an ester content equal to 44.59 per cent. Lavender 

 from plants on ground facing north contained 41.16 per cent, linalyl acetate and showed 

 d 15 o 0.89176. 100 kg. of lavender blossoms produced 1.06 kg. of oil = 1.06 per cent. 



In 1913, two plots in a garden had been planted, one with Lavandula delphinensis, 

 the other with L. fragrans. Owing to the dry summer of 1916 the plantations were 

 watered in such a manner that the lower part of the plants was nearly continually 



L ) Parfum,. moderne 9 (1916), 121. 



