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CORK 



Cork (Span, corcho, from Lat. cortex) is the 

 extraordinarily developed corky layer (see below, 

 and article BARK ) of the bark of the Cork-tree or 

 Cork-oak (Querciis suber) of the Mediterranean. 

 Spain and Portugal chiefly supply the world with 

 cork. The cork-tree is not of great size, generally 

 20 to 60 feet high, the trunk often 3 feet in diameter, 

 much branched, with ovate-oblong evergreen leaves, 

 ntire or serrate. The acorns are edible, and re- 

 semble chestnuts in taste. The tree is usually 

 twenty or twenty-five years old before it yields a 

 gathering of cork, and attains an age of 150 years. 

 The first produced ( Virgin Cork ) is of little value, 

 but is removed in order that the next production may 

 be better, for every successive formation is superior 

 to that which preceded it, and it is not till the third 

 gathering that cork of the highest quality is ob- 

 tained. About every eight or ten years a crop is 

 taken ; but the improvement is being introduced of 

 leaving the loosened cork-layer for some months as 

 & protective jacket upon the tree. The cork-cam- 

 bium is thus protected from the sun and the attacks 

 of insects, and the new growth is thus both more 

 rapid and of finer quality. In stripping off the 

 cork, longitudinal and transverse incisions are made 

 to the proper depth, and each piece is then cut 

 away from the tree by a curved knife with two 

 handles, like that of a cooper. The pieces are 

 soaked in water, pressed flat, dried, and super- 

 ficially charred, to remove decayed parts and con- 

 ceal blemishes, before they are packed in bales for 

 the market. Besides the use of cork for stopping 

 bottles, casks, &c., it is much used, on account of 

 its lightness, for floats of nets, life-belts, &c. ; and 

 on account of its impermeability to water, and 

 its being a slow conductor of heat, inner soles of 

 shoes are made of it. All these uses are men- 

 tioned by Pliny ; but the general employment of 

 corks for glass bottles appears to date only from 



the 15th century. 

 The Spanish Black 

 used by painters is 

 made by burning 

 cork-parings in closed 

 vessels. Cork-waste 

 is also utilised for 

 many objects, and 

 most largely in the 

 manufacture of lino- 

 leum. 



The cork-tree is 

 occasionally planted 

 in England ; it has 

 been found to do well 

 in some parts of the 

 United States. 



The wood of some 

 trees possesses the 

 cellular sponginess, 

 lightness, and elasti- 

 city of cork in such a 

 degree as to be some- 

 times substituted for 

 it in many of its uses, 

 as that of the Anona 

 palustris ( Corkwood 

 or Alligator Apple) in the West Indies, &c. 



As already mentioned under Bark (q.v.), cork is 

 by no means botanically the exceptional product it 

 seems from the practical or popular point of view. 

 The epidermis being usually only a single layer of 

 definitely formed 1 cells, it is insufficient either for 

 covering or protection in almost all conditions of 

 continuous growth and exposure to climate (the 

 mistletoe being rather a less developed type than a 

 true exception among woody plants, since its deeper 

 ordinary epidermic cells never lose the power of 

 multiplication ). In sections of the young shoots of 



^Formation of Cork in a branch 

 of Black Currant, one year 

 old ( ma<j. 350 diameters) : 



e, epidermis ; 6, bast-cells ; pr, cor- 

 tical parenchyma; fc, the cork- 

 cells formed from c, cork -cam- 

 bium. (Sachs.) 



dicotyledonous trees or shrubs this provision foi 

 replacing the epidermis can be beautifully traced ; 

 a layer of cells just outside the cellular envelope, 

 the so-called cork-cambium, is seen to have already 

 formed an appreciable thickness of cork-cells, easily 

 recognised by their prismatic shape, tolerably 

 regular vertical series, and thin walls. As the 

 stem grows older the epidermis wears off and the 

 cork-layer thickens, while the access of air to the 

 living cellular envelope below is permitted by the 

 occurrence of spaces empty or failed only with 

 looser tissue, the Lenticels (q.v.), which, of course, 

 become represented by the deep air-channels so 

 obvious in the inferior quality of cork. 



CORK-CUTTING. The bark, after being cut into 

 square pieces or sheets, is pressed to remove its 

 natural curvature and flatten it. If it is found that 

 simple pressure has not flattened it sufficiently, it 

 is heated on the convex side, and the contraction 

 thus produced straightens it. It is then cut into 

 slips, and these slips into squares, according to the 

 required size of the corks. These are rounded by 

 the cork-cutter by means of a broad sharp knife ; 

 the cork is rested against a block of wood, and the 

 knife pushed forward, its edge at the same time 

 being made to describe a circular curve. The knife 

 requires continual sharpening ; the workman has a 

 board before him on which the knife is rubbed on 

 each side after every cut. But cork-cutting is now 

 largely done by machinery ; in the United States 

 the process has been carried to great perfection. 

 Corking-machines are ingeniously contrived to 

 force the cork into the neck of the bottle, and, if 

 necessary, to wire it down. For rock cork, see 

 ASBESTOS. 



Cork, a maritime county in Munster, the south- 

 most and largest of the Irish counties. Greatest 

 length from east to west, 110 miles ; greatest 

 breadth, 70 ; average, 34. Area, 2890 sq. miles. 

 Cork is hilly, with great variety of surface. The 

 west part is rocky, mountainous, wild and boggy ; 

 the east and south, rich, fertile, and picturesque. 

 The ranges run east and west, except the Boghra 

 Mountains, between the Lee and Blackwater. 

 The coast is bold and rocky, and from its indenta- 

 tions, 250 miles long ; the bays, which run 3 to 25 

 miles inland, admitting large vessels. The chief 

 bays are Bantry, Dunmanus, Baltimore, Glandore, 

 Clonakilty, Kinsale, Cork Harbour, and Youghal. 

 There are many isles off the coast, including 

 Cape Clear Island, which lies in 51 25' N. lat., 

 and 9 30' W. long., and, with the exception of 

 a rock 4 miles to the SSW., is the southmost 

 point in Ireland. In the west, Cork is divided 

 from Kerry by a range of Silurian clay-slate 

 running north-east and north, the chief points 

 being 1200 to 2240 feet high. This range sends 

 offshoots to the east, which divide the county 

 into the parallel basins of the three chief rivers of 

 Cork, the Blackwater, Lee, and Bandon : the lower 

 parts of these basins are well cultivated and pro- 

 ductive. The Lower Carboniferous limestone forms 

 the largest lowland tracts and valleys of the county. 

 Part of the Munster coalfield occupies 400 sq. m. in 

 the north -Avest. Cork has many small lakes in the 

 west. One of these lies at the source of the Lee, 

 amid wild, picturesque scenery, with the ruins of 

 a chapel on an islet frequented by pilgrims. The 

 chief mineral productions are coal and iron, copper, 

 barytes, limestone, fine dark-gray and also red 

 marble rich in fossil shells, fullers' earth, brick- 

 clay, marl. There is a thermal magnesian spring 

 at Mallow. The climate is moist, but genial. The 

 soils are calcareous, loamy, and moory. The dairies 

 are extensive, and Cork butter stands in high 

 estimation. The cattle are small in size, but yield 

 large quantities of milk. Of the total area, about 

 30 per cent, is under crops. The chief manufactures 



