Morris tribune., 1882-09-14
The Cultivation of Flowers and the
Manufacture ofPcrfumes at Grasse
EraRce.

The Cultivation OF Flowers and the
Manufacture ofPcrfumes at Grasse
France.
1t is something in these days of shams
and deceits, when everything seems to
be made of the least probable ingredi-
eEts, to find that the scents which we
put on our handkerchief are still dis
TILED from flowers. No one who has
been to GrasSe can doubt it. When once
the flower season begins, every alley in
the town smells strong Of viOlets, or
orange blossoms, or roses, according to
the particular flower that the perfumers
are at work upon. The cultivation of
flowers is the great industry of the dis
trict. Roses, vioIets, marcissus, jasmine,
and tuberOse are grown in fields just like
turnips or mangOlls with us; and in
good season the land thus employed
brings in much better return
than if it were sown with
wheat or any other crop. 1t certainly
takes away from all the romance of the
flowers to see them thus grown whole
sale, aud the blossoms tossed about with
as little care or ceremony as hay or
straw. The flowers are all bought by
weight at so much a kilo, and must con-
seouently be all hand-picked, and as free
from stems as possible. Picking the
flowers, especially the violets. is very
hard work when continued for many
hours at a stretch, as has to be done in
the height of the season when the terra
ces are so carpeted with blue that not a.
nf 10 Mo TO ho
when all these blossoms must be gather
ed and sold before they show the first
symptom of fading. Roses are
consumed in prodigious quantities, for
great deal of the so-called eastern altar
of roses is made at Grasse. During the
rose season bands of girls are employed
in simply picking the petals from the
blossoms. In the room where this la
Dor is going on the floor is covered half
a foot thick with rose leaves, looking
like drifts of tinted snow Nerolv. the
essence of orange blossom. equivalent
in strength to after of roses, is another
of the special products of Grasse, and
the perfumers of cologne are SUPPLIED
from here with that and other essences,
which they alone have the secret ofcon-
verting into their famous scented water,
of which the so-called Eau de Grasse is
very poor imitation. One kilo. or two
poun $ weight, of orange petals are
used in making one gramme of Neroly.
There are ninety perfumeriesin the de-
partment, and by far the greater num-
Der of them are in the town of Grasse
itself Among the legion of m; thus
employed may be found every degree of
fortune and social Importance. There
are the great f"ctories, with soaring
chimneys, that stand out conspicuous
above the town. Here everything is
worked by steam, after the most ap-
proved methods, and a counting-house
| is attached, where bevy of clerks and
| foreign correspondents conduct all the
| business on paper, but know nothing of
tie mechanical part of the trade. The
perfumer himself is man of fortune
who has a snowy chateau in the
neighborhood, or perhaps he is Deputy,
and lives in Paris, and troubles himself
very little about his business as long as
it keeps his pockets regularly replen-
lshed. But in contrast to this there is
the homespun perfumer who keeps
everything to himself, and does it ali on
his own premises