AMERICAN GROWN CORK 



BY GEORGE N. LAMB 



QTANDING 

 j^ on the edge 

 of a cot- 

 ton field a half 

 mile north of 

 Daphne Sta- 

 tion, west of 

 Cordele, Geor- 

 gia, is undoubt- 

 edly the larg- 

 est specimen of 

 cork oak (Quer- 

 cus suber) in 

 America. The 

 tree is over one 

 hundred years 

 old and tradi- 

 tion says that 

 the acorn from 

 which it grew 

 was brought to 

 this country 

 from Spain by 

 a Sou t h e r n 

 planter. At the 



THIS IS THE LARGE CORK OAK GROWING ON THE EDGE OF A COTTON FIELD AT DAPHNE, 

 GEORGIA. IT IS PROBABLY SEVENTY FIVE TO ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD AND IS A 

 REMARKABLE AND BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLE OF THE LARGE PROPORTIONS THE TREE ATTAINS 



time it was 

 secured Spain 

 prohibited the 

 export of cork 

 oak acorns in 

 order to pro- 

 tect their mo- 

 nopoly on the 

 cork industry. 

 The gigantic 

 size of this ex- 

 otic is attested 

 by the fact .that 

 it is 45 ]/ 2 in- 

 ches in diame- 

 ter one foot 

 from the 

 ground. It has 

 a height of 

 60 feet and a 

 spread of 60 

 feet one way 

 and 70 feet the 

 other. The tree 

 forks into four 



THIS IS A CLOSE-UP OF THE BRANCHING OF THE OLD CORK GIA\T. AND SHOWS CLEARLY THE CORKY BARK OF THE FIRST LIMBS 



