THE CORK TREE. 551 
of fine cork for stoppers if the cork plantations are not looked after and 
- Inanaged with more care and attention than heretofore. The demand 
for bottle-corks is rapidly growing larger, and everything leads to the 
belief that it will continue to do so for many years. The establishment 
of cork plantations, however, goes on very slowly. Fully aware of this 
fact, the French Government, in 1822, placed in the hands of the Royal 
and Central Society of Agriculture 4,500 franes, to be divided among such 
persons as might plant acorns of the cork oak after the year 1823, and at 
the expiration of ten years possess plantations containing ten thousand 
strong and vigorous saplings. In 1834 three persons were found to 
have fulfilled the conditions, and the money was divided among them 
by the society. 
The French Government pays particular attention to the preservation 
and development of the extensive plantations of this tree which now 
exist in Algeria. A large and intelligent staff of officers, of the corps 
of forest engineers, have charge of them, and they yield a large revenue 
to the state. France has now about 500,000 acres of cork plantations 
in her African colony. 
Although in the majority of cases the offer of prizes, always small 
and of little value, for the culture of a tree which requires a heavy ex- 
penditure to plant the seed, and a long period to acquire the requisite 
size, is inefficacious, it might, perhaps, be productive of much good to 
call a convention of proprietors of cork lands, to be held within six, 
eight, or more years, to discuss the question of cork culture. One or 
more premiums mighi at the same time be offered to those who should, 
within the time specified, obtain the best results in planting, or in the 
improvement of their lands. The awards should be made by a select 
jury so as to secure impartial and intelligent decisions. 
It would also not be out of place to offer a handsome prize for the 
best paper on the destruction of the larvae which are now doing so much 
damage to the cork by burrowing through it in all directions; and another 
for the best paper on the means of preventing the appearance of the 
disfiguring stains in the cork known as “‘jaspeado” (mottled). With this 
incentive a desire to study these questions, upon which so little is now 
known, might be awakened, and it is fair to assume that a positive 
benefit would result. y 
The importance of the cork crop and the development of the manufac- 
ture of corks in Spain were hardly appreciated until about the middle 
of the present century. Since that time the latter has increased enor- 
mously, and to-day, in some provinces, it is one of the chief sources of 
wealth. Hence the great rise in the value of cork within the period 
mentioned. Formerly used In making beehives and floats for fishing- 
nets, &c., but principally for fuel, its money value was insignificant. 
As the cork tree does not furnish good lumber, and its wood is valuable 
only as fuel, some of the proprietors of cork plantations desiring to ob- 
tain better returns from their lands, devoted them to other purposes, 
and in this way, even during the second third of this century, large 
plantations of cork trees were cut down. On account of the low estima-- 
tion in which it was held, there was, up to a short time ago, no induce- 
ment for any one to make a study of the cork tres with a view to im- 
prove its product or increase its yield. Unfortunately, persons who 
might have done so did not even take it up as a scientific curiosity. 
The little information of importance that has been published upon 
this subject is of very recent date. The time, also, employed in the ex- 
periments mentioned by the different writers has not been sufficient, in 
many cases, to prove practically that which has been theoretically ad- 
