The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-09-12
AMERICAN ALTAR OF ROSES.
Efforts Being Made to Produce ,t In Our
soutneru States.

Il 1HoTts othhk @'s"-~ - =
Southern States.
At the Atlanta exhibition quite a va
riety of American perfumery made in
the southern states was 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 it's 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 large part of their blood.
Other sorts of roses have been tried for
distilling the celebrated perfume, but
only two Others yield even 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 it's 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 though. that
the damask rose could be made to pro-
duce its altar only on the south slope
of the Balkans, where it has grown Cor
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 thos"
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 grownup. The manufactory near
Leipsic treats during the season 3,oO0,-
600 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 readilyestimatcd, although about
10000 roses ore required 10 make an
ounce. The distillery is placed IN tn
middle of the rose garden. so that thr
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-
cests Immediately its Persian origin.
the manufacture practically died out
three years ago. and the center Of the
business has been for a long time in
the country about KOnzanlik 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 length Of
about Il miles and with an ayerag
breadth of ten miles. On this ground
are produced annually from 100000.
600 TO 5000, 100000 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 il can be transferred to this
country. From present indications il
seems as if il could. and instead of inn
porting hundreds of thousands of dol
lars worth of perfumery, our dealers
will find the supply right al their door.
Philadelphia Times.