1876.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



in 



ten it and render it easier of transportation. It 

 should be from fifteen to twenty inches thick. 



Michaux, who is an authority, asserts that this 

 tree would be an important acquisition to the 

 United States, and would grow wherever the live- 

 oak subsists. This region may be said to com- 

 mence about file latitude of Fortress Monroe, 

 Virginia, and extends to the Gulf of Mexico. In 

 much of this region land is only worth, say, from 

 one to three and five dollars the acre. If a man 

 was desirous of founding a family, he should 

 plant these acres, or some of them, with cork, 

 walnut, locust, larch, catalpa, and other trees; if 

 he selects his land with judgment, his children 

 and grand-children can and will supply the great 

 demand which is to come for railroad ties, furni- 

 ture, car builders, and the thousand artificers 

 who are always demanding more wood. The 

 bark of the cork tree will always be in demand. 

 We have quotations every week of the Quercitron 

 used by tanners ; it is within the possibilities that 

 quotations of cork oak bark will hereafter be 

 made at one hundred times the value of the 

 " tanners' bark." Though the time for receiving 

 returns for planting cork seems a long one, let us 

 remember that the black oak has taken quite as 

 many years to produce its bark, and that when 

 stripped the tanners' bark is never renewed. 



Both outer and inner bark, according to Lou- 

 don, abound in tannin, and the former contains 

 a peculiar pjrinciple called suberine, and an acid 

 called the suberic. The wood of the tree is stated 

 to weigh 84 lbs. per cubic foot, but is never found 

 of sufficient size to be of much consequence ; its 

 outer bark was applied to useful purposes even 

 in the time of the Romans. Pliny speaks of a 

 buckler lined with cork, and the Roman women 

 lined their shoes with it ; both Greeks and Ro- 

 mans appear to have used it occasionally for 

 stoppers to vessels, but it was not extensively em- 

 ployed for this purpose till the 17th century, 

 when glass bottles began to be generally intro- 

 duced. Besides the above uses, bungs are made 

 of it, and it is employed by fishermen for buoy- 

 ing their nets, in the construction of life-boats, 

 so-called life-jackets, &c. The Venetian ladies 

 employed it for their high-heeled shoes, and the 

 poor people of Spain lay planks of it by their 

 bed-side to tread on, as rugs are employed. 

 Sometimes the insides of houses built of stone 

 are lined with this bark, which renders them 

 very warm, and corrects the moisture of the air. 

 Bee-hives are also made of the bark of young 



trees ; even furniture of the lightest kind is made 

 of cork. 



If we add to its compressibility and elasticity, 

 that it is the best non-conductor, flexible, its 

 adaj^tability to life-preservers either in the form 

 of boats, its imijerviousness to liquids, and its 

 great durability, we have an article readily pro- 

 duced, of the utmost imiDortance, and well worthy 

 of cultivation in our country; its commerce ex- 

 tends throughout the civilized world. 



Recent efforts have been made with cork 

 shaved thin to adapt it for the soldiers' knap- 

 sacks, belts, and even his canteen, the object 

 being lightness and dryness ; and it is understood 

 these efforts have been successful. Who can say 

 that the huge trunks now employed may not be 

 made of slabs of cork ? 



When the cork tree has attained the age of 

 about 15 or 20 years the bark is removed for the 

 first time, but the first bark is found to be crack- 

 ed, and is therefore only fit for burning or being 

 employed in tanning. 



The largest cork tree is in England, says the 

 same valued authority just quoted, in Devon- 

 shire, at an elevation of 450 feet above the level 

 of the sea, in a soil of fine rich red loam, on a 

 substratum of stone conglomerate. It is only 

 three miles from the sea, and is exposed to the 

 sea breeze from the east, a situation not unlike 

 the long reach of our eastern Florida coast. 



Byron has alluded to this tree thus : 



" The cork trees hoar that crown the shaggy steep ;" 



and Southey speaks, in Roderick, the Last of the 

 Goths, of 



"The cork tree's furrowed rind, its ritts and swells." 



In conclusion, this Centennial period is a very 

 proper one to inquire what we can do for the 

 next hundred years. For one thing, I would say, 

 plant cork acorns, and don't depend upon Patent 

 Office or Agricultural Bureau for encouragement. 



Since all the parade of government i:)atronage 

 was made, we have obtained California, with a 

 climate in places no doubt admirably adapted to 

 the Evergreen or live oak and the cork oak. 

 Whether it will succeed there is a question to be 

 decided, and how far irrigation will be required 

 remains for the future to ascertain. Doubtless 

 there are situations wherein both these import- 

 ant aids to civilization will flourish. We recom- 

 mend a trial; and if acorns are wanted Messrs. 

 Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co., Quai de la Message- 

 rie, Paris, will gladly supply them in any needed 

 quantity. 



