SOME FOREIGN TREES OF ECONOMIC VALUE ADAPTED TO 

 PLANTING IN SOUTHERN STATES. 



CORK OAK. 



By Dr. J. D. Jones, 



Formerly Assistant Chief of Division of Forestry. 



Among the minor products of the forest, cork is one of the most 

 widely used, though the area of its production is extremely limited. 

 With the rapid development of the wine industry of California, the 

 home production of cork has become a matter of increased importance. 

 Attention has been attracted to the possibilities of cork growing in 

 America by the rapid development of a few trees from acorns imported 

 by the Department of Agriculture and planted in California in 18(30. 

 The following notes are based principally on a French publication — Le 

 Chene-Liege, sa culture et son exploitation par A. Lamey, Paris, 1893 : 



HISTORY AND STATISTICS. 



Among the more ancient writers, Theophrastus, 288 B. C, mentions 

 cork, and the elder Pliny, 23-79 A. D., in his natural history (Liv. 

 XVI, Chap. VIII), speaks of the tree, its growth, acorns, and the use 

 made of its bark. The Greeks and Romans were familiar with many 

 of the uses to which cork is put at the present time. They knew that 

 the cork tree produced a new bark after the old had been detached, 

 and they have recorded that in certain parts of northern Africa the 

 natives used cork bark to cover their houses. Theophrastus mentions 

 the cork oak of the Pyrenees, and all that Pliny says of it is true, 

 except that the cork oak did not exist in Gaul. 



The uses of cork were restricted, though knowledge of it had existed 

 so long, until the seventeenth century, when the 'development of glass 

 manufacture and the general use of bottles made it a necessity. At 

 first only the native cork was used, and not until the eighteenth cen- 

 tury do we find traces of the culture of the cork oak noted iu Spam. 

 Dr. Primitiro Artigas, professor of the School of Forestry at the Esco- 

 nal, reports in 1700 a German — called by the people of the country Don 

 Jose Ruinez, director of the Royal Cannon Ball Foundry at San 



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