The products in attar have been widely different. The natives rarely obtain more than a drachm and a half from a maund of roses; whereas Colonel Polier obtained full two drachms from a hundred pounds troy. In Europe, we find that some continental chymists have extracted half an ounce: Hamberg succeeded so far as to draw a whole ounce, and Hoffman was rewarded with no less than two ounces. All these persons, however, rejected the chalices; using only the petals; which necessarily made a great difference, the perfume being, principally, if not wholly, confined to them.

The rose-water, even after the attar has been completely separated, is rich in fragrance, but is far more so, when the attar is suffered to remain united with it, as may be effected by the addition of various menstrua, which keep it suspended in the fluid. The general price of such rose-water as is ordinarily sold under the designation of ‘double,’ and, of course, passes for the very best, may be from twenty, to forty, rupees per maund, according as the season may have been productive, or as the purchase may be made from the distiller himself, or through a second or a third hand.

Colonel Polier states that the quantity of attar obtained from nearly fifty-five maunds of roses, which grew upon about eleven acres of good soil, highly manured, amounted to sixteen tolahs, or about half a pound avoirdupoise. This gives us some insight into the value of the attar; for, if we allow the land to have been worth a guinea per acre, and that the cultivation, together with the expences of distillation, should amount to as much more, the following would be the state of the concern.

£.s.d.£.s.d.
Rent of 11 acres, (or 33 bigahs,)111102320
Expences of cultivation, &c.11110

Against which we have

Sixteen tolahs of attar, say at two guineas,33120
About thirteen and a half maunds of rose-water, say at only 20 rupees, or £2. 10s. per maund33100
Giving a total of receipts equal to 6720
And a nett produce on 11 acres, of 4400
Equal per acre, to the yearly sum of 400

In the above, I have taken the attar at far less than the price it at present bears, and the rose-water at the rate usually charged at Juanpore, Lucknow, &c. for a maund of the best rose-water, at the time Colonel Polier’s experiment, above detailed, was dated, namely, in 1787. If my information is correct, the best attar now sells at Calcutta for near six guineas the ounce; and the best rose-water at Juanpore, where a large quantity is distilled, for thirty-five and forty rupees per maund. The expence of the cultivation is taken at about seven rupees monthly, on an average; there being no work of consequence performed, except hoeing, for full eight months in the year. The rent of the land is rated at the ordinary medium at which I compute soils suited to the growth of tobacco, cotton, sugar, opium, &c. to be of late, that is, at about 2½ rupees, or eight shillings per bigah.

In Doctor Willich’s Encyclopædia, I observe it is stated, that genuine attar sells, even in the East Indies, at twenty guineas the ounce; but I apprehend this to be a great error; at least, it is far beyond what the experience of more than twenty years allows me to credit. If, indeed, the Doctor means that which the gundies retail, by mixing only one drop of genuine attar among pint of oil of sandal-wood, as is often practised, he is far short of the mark; for, in such case, the ounce may be said to sell for nearer fifty, than twenty guineas.

The color of attar, is remarked by Colonel Polier, ‘to be no criterion of its goodness, its quality, or its country.’ That gentleman states, that he had, in the same year, and from the same rose-bushes, attar of a fine emerald green, of a bright yellow, and of a reddish hue, all obtained by the same process, only that the roses were collected on different days.[days.]

Here I am disposed to suspect, that the old trick, so peremptorily detected by Doctor and Professor Gilchrist, of mixing a solution of verdigris, or other coloring matter, in the still, or in the receiver, must have been practised by some of the Colonel’s attendants. It has been sufficiently proved, that, when no such adulteration takes place, attar very nearly limpid: but, though a color may be thus imparted, it does not appear that the perfume is debased; its fragrance being unimpaired: on the other hand, the admixture of any other oil is readily discovered, by its causing the disposition to liquescence, even when exposed to severe cold, which distinguishes every other known perfume from genuine attar.