IIG 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[April, 



W. Glover, of Orangeburgh, S. C. Under date of 

 Dec. 21, 1875, he says : " About 24 years ago I 

 planted six acorns of the cork tree. All germi- 

 nated, but grew slowly, as the soil was barren, 

 and the location exposed them to the sun. They 

 were not cared for; but wishing to test their 

 adaptation to our climate, after four or five years I 

 removed two of them to a more favorable soil, and 

 where they enjoyed the shade of a house. Since 

 their removal the trees have advanced in height 

 and increased in diameter. My trees are about 

 twenty feet high, and thirty-one inches in cir- 

 cumference — and nineteen inches at five feet 

 from the ground. The leaf resembles that of the 

 live-oak, but the branches ate not so extended. 

 My trees have never yet borne any acorns. I am 

 satisfied that the tree can be successfully culti- 

 vated here. I enclose pieces of the bark." 



All this is satisfactory and to the point. The 

 specimens of the bark no one can mistake; they 

 are true cork. (Si^ecimens were shown.) 



We come now to the facts of European cultiva- 

 tion, and give presently a few particulars from 

 Michaux, and the exhaustive account of that ex- 

 pounder of botanical matters, Loudon, in his 

 great work, the Arboretum Brittanicum. As long 

 ago as 1845 I visited one of the largest cork trees 

 in the world, at Ham House, England, which was 

 planted by Dr. Fothergill, and is still in tolerable 

 condition, not having ever been stripped. I have 

 taken pains since to examine single trees in vari- 

 ous parts of Italy, especially at Isola Bella in 

 lake Como, one of the Borromean isles, where 

 the Quercus suber flourishes admirably alongside 

 of the Camphor tree, and many Jjotanical curios- 

 ities I have rarely met with elsewhere. 



"Aye be planting, Jock," applies emphatically 

 to our America. Suppose at the Revolution in 

 1776 every member of Congress from the South had 

 planted only a peck of cork tree acorns ! Would 

 we not bless every " signer " and his memory, for 

 his forethought. Sup])Ose we try the experiment 

 in 1877, and record the names of our patriotic 

 cork men. 



Let us see now what Michaux and Loudon say. 

 Taking the first authority and condensing his 

 information we find that — 



The cork oak grows naturally in the Southern 

 parts of France, in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and 

 the States of Barbary, which are comprised be- 

 tween the 44th and 35th degrees of latitude ; that 

 it rarely exceeds forty feet in height and three 

 feet in diameter, (The trees already mentioned 



as growing in South Carolina are 23 and 20 feet 

 high, attained in a little more than 20 years.) 



Its leaves are evergreen, but the greater part of 

 them fall and are renewed in the spring; they 

 are ovate, thick, slightly toothed, of a light green 

 on the upper surface, and glaucous underneath. 

 The acorns are rather large, oval, and half en- 

 closed in a conical cup, and being of a sweetish 

 taste, are eagerlj- devoured by swine. 



The wood is hard, compact and heavy, but less 

 durable than the common European oak, par- 

 ticularly when exposed to humidity. The worth 

 of the tree resides in its bark, which begins to be 

 taken off at the age of twenty-five years. The 

 first growth is of little value ; in ten years it is 

 renewed, but the second product, though less 

 cracked than the first, is not thick enough for 

 bottle corks. It is not till the tree is fort\'-five or 

 fifty years old that the bark possesses all the 

 qualities requisite for good corks, and from that 

 ])eriod it is collected once in eight or ten years. 

 Its thickness is owing to the extraordinary swell- 

 ing of the cellular tissue. It is better fitted than 

 any other substance for the use to which it is ap- 

 propriated, as its elasticity exactly adapts it to 

 the neck of the bottle, and its impenetrable 

 structure refuses exit to the fluid. 



Had mj- edition of Michaux's great work been 

 deferred till this date, (it was published in 1857,) 

 and two editions issued, I should have added 

 that gutta percha and gum elastic have been 

 tried with some success with a view of supersed- 

 ing cork, but the heavier cost and imperfect 

 adaptability are so great that as long as the true 

 cork is obtainable all substitutes yet tried will be 

 found gi'eatly inferior. It may here be added 

 that a vast portion of the cork imported in Amer- 

 ica is refuse, declined by European users. The 

 best is taken by the champagne bottlers abroad. 

 The bottled wines of this country are remarkable 

 for their inferior corkage, and MathcAvs would 

 have found very often a diflficulty in taking draw- 

 ings of them. 



July and August are the seasons for gathering 

 cork. Two opposite longitudinal incisions are 

 made through the whole length of the trunk of 

 the tree, and two others, transverse to the first, 

 at the extremities; the bark is then detached by 

 inserting a hatchet-handle like a wedge. Great 

 care must be taken not to wound the alburnum, 

 as the bark is never renewed upon the injured 

 parts. After being scraped, the bark is heated 

 on its convex side and laden with stones, to flat- 



