154 



THE CORK OAK 



-FORAGE GAME. 



came up and made healthy plants. Three of these are now about 

 tweuty-four feet high aud over 27 inches in circumference. Two trees, 

 at least, are flourishing at Orangeburg, S. 0., and there are probably 

 elsewhere in the South examples of successful x^lauting of this tree. 

 The cork-oak requires a warm climate ; but the Southern States and 

 California appear perfectly well adapted to its wants. The leaves are 

 evergreen, like the live-oak, and it is of slow growth. An acorn of the 

 cork-oak, planted in 1802, at Santa Barbara, Cal., has grown to about 

 twenty feet in height, and covers more than this breadth of ground. At 

 oue foot from the ground it measures 40 inches in girth, and at G feet, 

 where its branches begin, it is 30 inches. The bark of this tree is an 

 inch and a half thick, aud the cork apparently of the best quality.^ 



In its native countries the cork-tree is peeled once in eight or teu 

 years, beginning when 25 or 30 years old, aud care is taken not to injure 

 the inner bark. A new hij-er of cork forms readily, aud the tree seems 

 to thrive under the treatment, and lives to a great age. The importance 

 of cork as an article of commerce will be seen from the following tables. 

 The unmanufactured article has since 1871 been imported free of duties. 

 Upon manufactured cork the duty is now 30 per cent, ad calorem. 



Importation of corJc (unmanufactured) in recent years. 



LEAVES FOR FORAGE. 



In Europe, the leaves of trees, more especially of the ash, form an im- 

 I)ortaut article of forage for domestic animals in winter. With us, iu 

 the new settlements, a pioneer's team and little group of domestic ani- 

 mals have often been heli)ed through the first winter in the wilderness 

 by "browzing;" but it may be doubted whether the American farmer 

 will ever gather leaves from the woods as an article of ibdder for his 

 stock, nor will he, if he uuderstands their value in the formation of 

 humus aud fertilization of the soil, allow them to be wasted or burned. 



FORESTS AS A SHELTER FOR GAME. 



This use of forests, which formed the earliest, aud in some cases still 

 forms a principal reason for their preservation, implies a privileged class 

 which does not exist among us; and hence there is little probability 

 that this feature of forest management will ever assume in this country 



1 Santa Barbara Weekly Frens, January 27, lc77. 



