lo June, 1910.] The Cork Industry in Portugal. 377 



landscape. North of Oporto, the tree is seldom seen ; shortly after leaving 

 this town foT the south, vineyards are much in evidence, as well as mixed 

 farming. Among the prevailing trees, one frequently sees Eucalypts and 

 Blackwoods {Acacia melanoxylon, which is known locally as " Australia"). 

 These native trees of ours appear to be quite at home, and afford reassur- 

 ing evidence as to the suitability of Australian conditions for the cork oak. 

 It is after passing Coimbra, and when one enters upon undulating country 

 with poor sandstone ridges, in many places planted with Piiiia Maritima, 

 that the first cork plantations are seen. Further south, at Entroncamento 

 Junction (and thence on to Lisbon, wherever the soil is poor enough), 

 plantations or cork are seen from the train, some of them in regular lines 

 with cultivated strips between (cereals, &c.), as is often the case in the 

 orchards of the country. Thev are more often irregularly planted, as is 

 usual with forest trees. 



These plantations are, in appearance, very striking to the visitor, chiefly 

 by their many coloured trunks. The natural colour of this isi^the silver 

 or ashen grey of the twisted and gnarled surface of weathered cork. After 

 stripping great changes take place. Immediately after this operation, which 

 consists in the complete removal of the bark, right round the trunk, this 

 is of a vivid orange colour. On exposure, and as the new layers of bark 

 form, it becomes darker, passing through different shades of brown to 

 an almost inky black, which is reached in a few months after stripping. 

 This in turn gradually gives place to the natural ashy grey tint. 

 Being worked on a regular system, which provides for the stripping of a 

 certain area of a plantation each year, it follows that, in every plantation, 

 different coloured trunks are to be seen, all of which contrast strangely 

 with the dense, handsome, evergreen foliage above. 



Within the next few days, in the neighbourhood of Lisbon, I frequently 

 came in contact with cork, either growing or harvested. The plantations 

 usuallv occupv land too poor for ordinarv agriculture, and even too poor 

 for vines. Truck loads of cork are everywhere to be seen on the railways, 

 sometimes in the curled up state it assumes on its removal from the tree, 

 but at others straightened out, by steam treatment, into the flat sheets 

 known to the trade as " cork wood," and made up into bales. On barges 

 in the river, as well as on the railways, these are so much in evidence that 

 the visitor cannot fail to be impressed Avith the great value of this industry 

 to the country. 



Importance of the Industry in Portugai,. 



The Portuguese are very proud of their cork industry. Thev claim that,, 

 both as regards quality and quantity, they occupy first place in the world, 

 Spain alone being able to compete with them. It is universally admitted, 

 however, that the highest class champagne corks come from Cataluna 

 (Spain). 



In ipoOj* Portugal possessed 525,000 acres devoted to the culture of the 

 cork oak. This is an approximate estimate, as allowance has to be made 

 for another evergreen oak, Quercus Ilex, with which it is often mixed, and 

 of which more presentlv. It is estimated that the annual production 

 amounts to 50,000 tons of dry cork, of a value of 3,671,736,000 reis, 

 equivalent, at par, to ^^813, 290 of our money. In other words^ 

 the cork forests of Portugal vield, on an average, over 30s. per acre per 



* Lt- Portugal au Point de vw Ai/ricole liy Don Luiz de Castro ami Sr. Cincinnata 

 da Costa. 



