CHAP. CV. CORYLA CE. QUE/RCUS. 1915 
diately under the main branches, and another at a few inches above the sur- 
face of the ground. The portion of bark intervening between the two cuts 1s 
then split down in three or four places; care being taken, both in making the 
circular cuts, and also the longitudinal ones, not to penetrate the inner bark. 
This operation is commonly performed in July, or in the beginning of August, 
when the second sap flows plentifully. The tree is now left for 8 or 10 years, 
when it is again disbarked as before; but the bark has not even now attained 
the desired perfection for the manufacture of corks; and, therefore, it is sold to 
the fishermen for their nets, and for different other inferior uses. At the end 
of 8 or 10 years more, a third disbarking takes place, when the cork is found 
to have the requisite thickness and quality. From this time, while the tree 
exists, which, according to Bosc, may be two or three centuries, and, according 
to Du Hamel and Poiret, 150 years or more, its disbarking takes 
place regularly every 8, 9, or 10 years; the quality of the bark im- 
proving with the increasing age of the tree, which is not in the 
slightest degree injured by its removal. (Nouv. Du Hamel, vii. p. 188.5 
and Poiret’s Hist. Phil. des Plantes, vii. p.419.) The instrument by 
which the bark is cut and separated from the tree is a sort of axe 
(fig. 1799.), the handle of which is flattened into a wedge-like shape 
at the extremity; and this serves to raise the bark after it has been 
cut: in short, the instrument is not unlike that used in Britain for 
taking the bark off the common oak. The cork, when first removed 
from the tree, is in laminz, more or less curved, according to their 
breadth, and the diameter of the tree from which they have been & 
taken. To make them lose this curved form, after being scraped 
on the outer surface to remove the coarser parts of the epidermis, 1" 
and any epiphytes or other extraneous substances, they are held over a 
blazing fire till the surface becomes scorched; after which they are laid 
flat on the ground, and kept in that position for some time by large stones. 
This gives them a set, or form, which they retain ever afterwards ; and thus 
they become in a fitter state, not only for packing and transportation, but for 
being manufactured. The slight charring which the scorching produces has 
the effect of closing the pores of the cork, and giving it what the cork-cutters 
call nerve. The best cork is not less than 1} in. in thickness: it is supple, 
elastic, neither woody nor porous, and of a reddish colour. Yellow cork is 
considered of inferior quality ; and white cork, which has not been charred 
on the surface, as the worst. The duty on manufactured cork, M‘Culloch 
tells us, is prohibitory; and on the raw material it is no less than 8/. a ton. 
The average annual importation is from 40,000 cwt. to 45,000 cwt.; and the 
price, including duty, is from 20/. to 70/. per ton. It is imported from the 
south of France, Italy, and Barbary, as well as Spain; but Spanish cork is 
the best, and fetches the highest prices. If the cork which is removed from 
trees at the first and second disbarkings were admitted duty free, it would be 
found of great use in lining the walls and roofs of cottages, and for covering 
their floors, and various other uses, which would contribute much to the com- 
fort of the poorer classes, independently of lining the summer and fishing 
houses of the rich, as already suggested. 
The tree attains as large a size in Britain as it does in Spain, and might 
probably produce cork for the above purposes, if it were fairly tried, in the 
warmest parts of England. Michaux strongly recommends its introduction 
into the United States, observing that it could not fail to thrive wherever 
Q. virens exists; as, for example, on the southern coast, and its adjacent 
islands. Captain S. E. Cook laments the destruction of the cork trees in 
Spain, as Bose does their neglect in France. A contract, Captain Cook 
observes (writing in 1834), has lately been made for the extraction of a quan- 
tity of the finest bark from the Sierra di Morena, in the neighbourhood of 
Seville; and the contractors were compelled to take the inner bark as well 
as the outer, the stripping off of which is known to kill the tree. The inner 
bark, being of no use but for tanning, was found an incumbrance to the con- 
