4 
550 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
ABSTRACT A. 
Mean temperatures and rainfall at Fort Rice, Dakota, from May 11, 870, to October 31, 1877. 
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1870, May to November, 8.59 inches rain.....- 8.72 | 53.95 | Hight months’ observations, from May 
« r. to December. : 
1871, April to November, 12.67 inches rain..-.| 12.59 | 37.16 
1872, April to November, 11.51 inches rain.-..; 13.40 | 40.00 
1878, April to November, 7.82 inches rain...-| 10.81 | 38.00 
1874, April to November, 7.72 inches rain....| 13.94 | 43.81 
1875, April to November, 12.49 inches rain....| 16.16 | 39.42 
1876, April to November, 10.28 inches rain....| 11.50 | 42.68 
1877, April to November, 19.58 inches rain.-..| 26.53 | 49.50 | Ten months’ observations, from Janm- 
ary to October. 
Mean for seven and a half years........|----.--. 45. 70 
Total rainfall in seven and a half years. .| 113, 63 |........ 
Latitude, 46° 35’; longitude, 23° 33’; elevation above sea-level, 2,200 feet. 
BLAIR D. TAYLOR, 
Assistant Surgeon, U. &. A. 
The rainfall for 1871, as recorded, is probably erroneous. 
EDW. MAGUIRE, 
Lieutenunt Engineers, U. S. A. 
THE CORK TREE. 
Mr. Primitive Artigas y Teixidor, 4 graduate of the School of Forest 
Engineers of Spain, has recently published a pamphlet* on the culture 
of the cork tree and the care and management of cork plantations. As 
the climate in many parts of the United States is known to be favorable 
for the growth of this tree, it is deemed expedient to give the following 
summary of Mr. Artigas’ pamphlet. Itis to be regretted that lack of 
space forbids the presentation of a full translation of the work, which 
also contains a paper on the manufacture of bottle-corks in Spain. 
According to Mr. Artigas, up to the present day no material has been 
found to take the place of cork in the manufacture of stoppers for bottles. 
Its impermeability, elasticity, durability, and lightness have gained for 
it a position in the field of industry which it will not readily yield to 
any other substance. Hence the imperative necessity for encouraging 
the growth of cork plantations, and avoiding the course followed by 
some operators in this branch of forest industry in tie island of Sicily, 
the kingdom of Naples, and in the island of Sardinia. In the last-men- 
tioned place a cork plantation, according to Mr. Nicholas Kymar, capa- 
ble of yielding an annual income of five or six hundred thousand franes 
was destroyed. The cbhject was to obtain the tannin from the bark. The 
trunks and branches of the trees, after having been stripped of their 
bark, were burned in order that the carbonate of soda contained in the 
ashes might be extracted. To-day, and with good reason, the manu- 
facturers are beginning to fear that there will soon be a great scarcity 
~ *El Aleornoque y La Industria Taponera, por Don Primitivo Artigas y Teixidor, 
Ingeniero de Montes. Madrid, 1575. 
