By resorting to these various tests in the selection of supplies from growers, as well as by extensive distillation in all the principal localities, respectable firms are always able to procure the finest otto-of-rose and to export it in its absolute purity.
The whole rose district comprises in all 173 villages, devoted to rose culture, with about 15,500 acres of rose plantations. These yield annually from 20,000,000 to 25,000,000 pounds of rose-flowers, for the distillation of which some 13,000 native stills are used. The total yield of otto annually varies according to the year—from 90,000 to 150,000 ounces; the average crop being about 120,000 ounces of pure otto-of-rose. It generally takes from 160 to 250 pounds rose-flowers to make one ounce of otto—and there are about 300 roses to the pound.
Nearly all the otto produced in Bulgaria is exported for consumption abroad, and chiefly to New York, Paris, and London, its three largest markets, and from there it is distributed all over the world. Formerly the perfumers used to be supplied through the intermediary of Constantinople, Leipzig, and London, but now all large consumers buy their supply direct. The house of Shipkoff was the first to inaugurate this system of direct relations. It saves many extra charges, and in case of the goods delivered turning out badly, the guilty party is at once detected.
Shipkoffs do not believe in all sorts of grades, their motto being, “Only one quality—the best.”
The culture of roses in Bulgaria is not only the oldest and most attractive industry of the country, but also quite exclusively its own. While roses are found all over the world and are grown everywhere in garden-beds, in Bulgaria they are grown in extensive fields, as we grow the potato or corn. This industry, however, is confined only to one special district in Bulgaria, which is comprised in the eight counties above mentioned, with Kazanlik as their central town, called, in consequence, the capital of the rose district. The rose district extends along that portion of the southern slopes of the Balkan mountains, comprising in itself the branch range of the Little Balkans, which shoots out of the main Balkans and forms one of its chief arms. The average length of the rose district is about eighty miles, and its average width is about thirty miles. Its average elevation is about 1300 feet above the level of the sea. The average height of the Balkans along the rose district is about 5600 feet, while that of the Little Balkans is about 3700 feet.
Attempts have often been made to grow roses all over Bulgaria, but they have all proved a failure. It is true that roses have been grown, and are grown to this day, in Persia, India, Egypt, and China for this purpose, but they hardly produce any otto-of-rose. They produce almost exclusively rose-water, and it is chiefly used for local consumption. In the Maritime Alps of Southern France, and especially in Cannes and Grasse, they grow quite extensively the “Provence rose,” and they extract from it a peculiar otto-of-rose, but the quantity is very limited, and they chiefly use their flowers to make pomades and rose-water. In Leipzig they also grow roses, but with very little success. Almost in all the other places where the roses are grown, they lack the peculiar advantages of climate that Bulgaria possesses, and have in consequence to use twice and even thrice the quantity of flowers to make the same amount of otto. The hottest weather ever experienced in summer in this part of Bulgaria is 88° Fahr. and the coldest of winter is rarely under 15° Fahr. above zero. Then, during the harvest and distillation season, which is in the latter part of May and the first part of June, there we have regular showers of rain and in the mornings heavy falls of dew—both absolutely necessary for the otto-of-rose distillation.
After the Russo-Turkish War in 1877-78, when Bulgaria was separated from Turkey and constituted into an independent Principality, the Turkish Government spent thousands of pounds in trying to replant the Kazanlik rose in Asia Minor, and many scores of rose-gardens were planted around Broussa, but to no purpose. The gardens grew, thrived, and yielded plenty of flowers, but when distilled they got only rose-water and very little otto, so the work, in consequence, could not pay. It is the peculiarity of the soil, and chiefly that of the atmosphere of this special district in Bulgaria, caused by the peculiar formation of the mountain ranges surrounding it, which makes the roses thrive and yield sufficient otto-of-rose to pay for the very laborious work that the culture entails.
The red rose grown is a semi-double light red rose like the French rose du roi, having from thirty to thirty-six petals and possessing an extremely rich and fragrant odour. The growing of the rose is very much like the growth of the vine, and the planting of a rose-garden is similar to that of a vineyard. After the ground has been prepared by tilling and manuring, ditches are made in rows, about a foot and a half in depth and width, and a yard and a half apart. At the bottom of these ditches soft earth mixed with manure is spread, on which the roots forming the bushes of the new rose-garden and taken from old bushes are firmly stuck vertically, and then well covered up with the earth and manure. This is generally done in the spring, when the rain showers abound. The roses thus planted soon take root, and in less than two months send up soft, glossy green shoots, which in a year become about a foot high. In the second year they are over two feet high, and yield a few rose-flowers. The first crop worth gathering is in the third year, and in the fifth year they attain their full growth. They reach then a height of about six feet, the bushes forming thick rows of clustered rose-trees and continuing to yield rich crops of flowers for a period of twenty years, and in some localities twenty-five years, after the lapse of which time they become old, begin to die from the winter’s cold and frost, and yield but few flowers. Then the old rose-bushes are dug out and the garden is planted anew.
A rose-garden requires constant care. During the year it is hoed three times. In autumn the roots are covered up with earth to guard them from the winter’s cold. In spring that earth is thrown off and the bushes are pruned, and every other year the garden is manured.
The roses yield only one crop every year. The rose-harvest begins in the latter part of May, and as the weather is dry and hot or cool and rainy during the blossoming season, it may last from eighteen to thirty days. During the whole harvest the distillation of the crop is carried on. Morning after morning, hours before sunrise, groups of young maidens and boys, all dressed in their beautiful bright-coloured native costumes, proceed with songs to the rose-gardens to gather the newly opened buds while the heavy morning dew is still on the blossoms. Nothing can present a more captivating scene than a rose-garden in bloom, with its gaily attired peasant-girls gathering the roses, and its nightingales—those romantic lovers of the Regina florum—trying in most melodious songs to out-sing the maidens.