Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-09-19
AMERICAN ALTAR OF ROSES.


xnorts Being Made to Produce 1t I'm Oar
Southern Stafea.
At the Atlanta exhibition quite a va
riety of American perfumery made in
the southern states wax exhibited, and
attracted considerable attention.
New efforts have been made toward
manufacturing the famous ''attar OF
roses" and the damask rose bush, the
Rosa Damascena of the Balkans, has
been introduced in the thermal BELTS -
where every condition seems favorable
to its growth This is the rose from
which 90 per cent of the altar of roses
is made. 1t is the ancestor from which
the infinite variety of hybrid perpetual
roses derive a large part of their blood.
Other sorts of roses have been tried for
distilling the celebrated perfume, but
only two others yield even a fain. trace
of this essence. One of these is the
white musk rose and the other dark
eyed variety of Damascena, but they do
not contain more than one-half the per-
fume found in the bushy damask rose.
The question of making this rose do
well in any other part of the world has
been doubted for some years. After the
Turkish war of 1878, that government.
having lost its Balkan provinces and
with them, the rose gardens, undertook
to transfer the industry to Asia Minor.
but while the bushes grew and produced
immense numbers of roses near Broussa
SO little altar could be extracted from
them that the enterprise was aban-
doned. After that it was thought that
the damask rose could be made to pro-
duce its altar only on the south slope
of the Balkans, where it has grown for
ages.
But within the last three years an
other experiment has been made with
the roses, and this has proved so sue
cessful that the gardeners have con-
Guided that similar conditions as those
prevailing in the Balkans can be found
in this country. Extensive plantations
of the rose bushes were made in the
neighborhood of Leipsic, Germany, and
the roses yielded such an amount of at
tar that an enormous industry has sud-
denly grown up. The mandatory near
Leipsic treats during the season 3,OOO,-
900 roses day and extracts from them
500 pounds of altar per year. AS the
altar sells for about six dollars per
ounce, the value of this new industry
can be readily estimated, although about
10000 roses are required to make an
ounce. The distillery is placed IN thu
middle of the rose garden, so that the
flowers reach the stills within a few
minutes after they are cut.
Although the mention Of the altar of
roses carries us back to the east and sug
gests Immediately its Persian origin,
the manufacture practically died cut
three years ago, and the center of the
business has been for long time in
the country about Kanzanlik, on the
south slope of the Balkans. close to the
Shipka or Wild Rose pass, made famous
in the history of the Russo-Turkish war
The rose belt extends to a length of
about II miles and with an average
breadth of ten miles. On this ground
are produced annually from 5000, OOO,
600 to 5000, 900 900 rose blossoms. But
now that the Leipsic distillery is in full
operation, the business in the Balkans
has been seriously injured. The only
question remaining to complete the his
tory of this industry is to find out
whether it can be transferred to this
country. From present indications it
seems as if it could. and instead of inn
porting hundreds of thousands of dol
lars worth of perfumery, our dealers
will find the supply right at their door.
Times.