The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-30
UNCLE SAM TRYING ID MAKE PERFUME May Save Several Million
 Dollars WILL TEST ROSE OIL Bureau of Plant Industry Experi- ments Result in Producing Ex- tract But Quality Still
 Remains in Doubt
By JONATHAN WINFIELD

l eIal mlllloHS Wnicn ia sent 10 Euro-
 penn markets for the purchase of altar
 of roses--a luxury which femininity re-
 gsrds as a necessity
 The bureau Of plant industry of the department of agriculture is conduct ing experiments at the Arlington plant farm to determine whether this per- fume can be produced in the United States as commercially profitable en-
 terprise.
 Under the direction of pr. Walter Van Fleet, an expert rose grower. and
 Dr. Rodney H. True, in charge of drug plant investigations, about 40 varieties of the roses grown by the French and Bulgarian producers of rose oil were
 imported last year and set out at the
 Arlington farm.
 There are nosv between 700 and 800
 plants in the experimental bed and the directors of the new enterprise gath
 cred their first crop this spring. The
 yield for two weeks was about 40 pounds of petals per day. These petals
 have been distilled and yielded about the same quantity of the highly scent
 ed oil which is usually extracted from
 a similar quantity of European-grown
 petals.
 The experts of the department of agriculture are not ready, however, to 1 say how this American oil compares 1 with regard to quality with that pro- | duced across the seas. It will be sub
 nitted to rose oil experts for class | iflcation and upon the report of these l experts will rest the future of the de- partments new investigations and ex- perlments.
 l The mere fact that the oil can be produced in this country, say agricul- | tural experts, does not establish the l fact that the new enterprises will be | a commercial success. There are number of other factors which will enter largely into the equation, even if the quality of the oil is found to be | equal to the imported product. Prominent among the difficulties to be met and overcome in the produc- tion of "rose essence in this country 1 is the high cost of labor. This will principally come into play when the flowers are harvested and the rose growers find that they will have to pay from four to six times as much to laborers over here as is paid across the pond" The plants require but lit- | tic personal attention and can be worked by horses, but the picking of l the roses has to be done under peculiar conditions.
 | To secure the best results the flowers must be gathered early in the morning.
 not later than 10 o'clock. As the per | feet flowers are only to be found on
 clear dry days. the grower can never | determine beforehand on what days he will pick. But as the full grown flow CT is practically worthless, he must have | q picking force ready to enter the gar dens the moment conditions are suitable | to gather the buds.
 1 In southern France. which. with Bull garia, supplies the American markets, the rose growers solve this problem in an unique manner On each farm is a large bell. When the pickers services
 are required this bell Is tolled at an early
 hour and the peasants hasten to the | fields. It may be difficult, say farming | exports, to pursue the enterprise in this manner under the present labor con- ditions existing in this country.
 The rose oil is used principally in the | manufacture of perfumery and as flaw | bring agent for certain unpalatable med l ic.nes. Statistics compiled five years ago
 showed that the United States imported | annually more than s3O0,0O0 worth of the | crude rose oil from Europe. Today this oil whoesales at from $9 to S10 an ounce. | The perfume manufacturers convert
 about an ounce of this valuable product
 into manufactured products, the princi-
 pal ingredient of value In which is the
 oil. These manufactured products usually
 sell for about s20. allowing the manufac-
 turer a profit of from 90 to 100 per cent | on purchase.
 America, however, does not confine her importation of the altar of roses to the
 crude oil The importation of perfumes
 annually foots up more than &,5oo00
 and a large percentage of these finished products contain a greater or lesser quan-
 tity of the costly oil.
 The fact that oil producing roses can
 be grown at Arlington without protec- ton demonstrates that the industry of
 rose growing might be pursued in large
 area of the United States The roses
 which were imported from France and Bulgaria are of variety similar to the
 100 leaf plant. popularly known as the cabbage head rose. which is found In practically every home garden.
 | The petals from which the high grade oil | is extracted are those of the medium | sized buds-the buds formed just as the flower commences to open and the outer | petals are curling away from the parent bud within, If the buds are picked too young the scent Is apt to be raw and acrid, and if they are allowed to open too l much the scent will be very faint. Ex-
 perts must supervise the pluciring. there fore, ln order that exactly the right kind and size buds may be picked.
 l The oil Is extracted from the petals | by placing them in a retort and passing steam through them, thus distilling the ! oil which passes of Into another recepta- ble as rosewater. To extract the oil from this water ether is added. The ether
 takes the heavy fluid and the compound
 is then set aside until the other evapor- ates. This is scientific method of pro- ducng altar of roses.
 | In the civil war days when the southern | bells did not have the whetheral to l pay for this boudoir product. they re- sorted to simpler method of manufac-
 tureA Rose petals were picked and placed in thin cloth, which was then put over l a cup of boiling water. A hot iron was then placed on the cloth containing l the petals and the distillation took place. | producing rosewater.
 | The prices received for altar of roses l appear to be exorbitant, but the yield from the crops is very small Investi-
 gations conducted in Europe have shown that it takes about 100 pounds of petals I to produce one-half ounce of the oil. The l entire daily yield of the experimental | farm at Arlington. therefore. would make less than one-quarter of an ounce of the | valuable product-or an amount valued at l about s2.50. Rather small return for
 soc, plants. The industry, to be profitable, 1 must be carried on on an extensive scale I.r-