May 2, 1892.] THE TROPIOAL 
AQRIdULTURlSt. 
vince of Gerona. It grows and develops in ground 
of very little depth, and sometimes in very stony 
ground. The leaves of the cork tree are oval-oblong 
or elongated oval, frequently toothed, and the teeth 
jagged ; length, from three to five centimetres, and 
width from one and a half to two. The roots are 
strong, and spread considerably, and are frequently 
to be seen on the surface of the ground. It some- 
times happens that the portion of root exposed to 
the air produces cork, while that which is buried 
produces scarcely any. The most common practice 
is to cultivate the plant by sowing, which is frequetly 
done, especially in ground somewhat manured, 
making alternate furrows with vines. Up to their 
twentieth or twenty-fifth year the ground is culti- 
vated as if it were a vineyard, rooting up at that 
age the vines on account of producing less fruit, 
and also on account of the cork trees being [fairly 
grown vip, and no longer requiring the shelter of 
the vines. The barking of the cork may be effected 
when the plant has acquired suflieient strength to 
resist the operation, and the time chosen for this 
operation is in the summer. The cork of the first 
barking is called corcho horiiio, honn;M or virgin, and 
is not fit for making corks. The cork taken after 
the first barking is called pdan, or secondary cork. 
The method employed in Spain for this operation 
consists in the total barking of tlie trunk, and not 
partial barking, or barking one part of the year and 
the remainder three, four, or five yeai-s later. In 
proportion as the cork is taken from the tree it is 
removed and piled up in heaps. Sometimes the cork 
is cooked in the woods, but at other times this oper- 
ation is effected in the cauldrons that exist in the 
cork factory. The slabs remain in boiling water 
during the space of one hour, this operation causing 
an increase of thickness (generally of one-fourth to 
one-fifth), elasticity of the cork, and dissolution of 
tannin and other substances. The cauldrons in which 
the cork is boiled are of copper, and are either 
cylindrical or rectangular. The boiling of the cork 
can also be effected by steam, for which purpose it 
is introduced into a wooden box lined on the inside 
with copper or zinc, which is filled with water and 
steam injected therein. The steaming of cork some- 
times hardens it and makes it brittle. The loss of 
weight produced by boiling the cork varies between 
twelve and forty per cent. In making corks it is 
necessary to take away the hard crust or raspa, for 
which puiT)ose a tool is used with a short handle 
and curved blade, called doladera, raapadov, or raspeta. 
A workman can scrape from two to three square 
metres of cork daily, and the loss in weight of the 
cork by scraping is from tweoty to thirty per cent. 
Scraping machines are also used, two systems being 
employed, the Besson and Tousseau. The former, 
propelled by steam, consists principally of horizontal 
spindles, supplied with comb-like teeth, and tur- 
ning with great velocity, at the rate of nine hundred 
revolutions a minute. The Tousseau scraper attacks 
the cork by the means of a vertical iron shaft, 
carrying several knives, whose edges are also vertical, 
and by the rotary movement of the shaft, giving 
fourteen hundred turns a minute, work like a brush. 
This machine is simpler than the Besson, and the 
slabs suffer less damage when worked by inexperi- 
enced workmen. Before cuttting the slabs in strips 
they arc cooked for about half an hour, so as to 
facilitate the cutting, and piled up soon after in a 
damp place, so as to preserve the softness until 
ready to operate upon. The slabs are divided into 
three strips (rchatiadnx), the width of which is equal 
to the length of the corks, and in such a way that 
if the cork be placed in the position occupied by the 
slab on the tree they would have their fibres running 
alike. The workmen obtain or cut the strips by 
moans of a knife witl\ flat surface and curved edge, 
called cinliilla tic rclxttiar. The strips are then nuide 
into squares by moans of the cnchilla. They then 
have the edges cut, and thus jirepared tliey are 
ready to be made into covks. This and the preced- 
ing operation are the most difficult of the cork in- 
dustry, requiring groat inldligenco if the slabs and 
strips are to bo cut to tlio best advantage. In the 
muiiufuttuic of the corks, the squnroa wade iuto 
octagons first pass into the hands of the workman 
who is furnished with a knife composed of two pieces 
one of them similar to an ordinary knife and the 
other a blade, the edges of which fits into the first. 
Consul Schench says that only by seeing is it pos- 
sible to form an idea of the rapidity with which 
these men take hold of a square and from it make 
a cork — they hold the knife by a small iron catch 
to the table in front of them, and giving to the 
square a circular movement, the result is that the 
cork is made in a few seconds. The squares are 
usually boiled for about a quarter of an hour, they 
are then deposited in a cool place, and four or five 
days after they are sorted and kept damp until re- 
quired. The amount which the workmen receive for 
cutting 1,000 corks varies from 0'75 to 4 pesetas, ac- 
cording to the kind of workmen (the peseta is equi- 
valent to about 9^d.). Different systems of machinery 
are employed to make corks, and all consist, at the 
base, of a knife, the blade of which is placed hori- 
zontally, joined generally to a piece of wood, and to 
which a back and forward movement is given similar 
to that of a carpenter's plane. In moving, the knife 
turns the square cork, which being attacked by the 
knife takes off a strip of cork, more or less thick, 
according to the distance from the axle of the cork 
and the edge of the knife. If these are parallel, 
the result is the cork is cylindrical, and if it is not 
it becomes conical. The corkmaker or workman has 
a large basket or several of them in which he 
places the corks according to size or quality, but 
this first classification is not sufficient, and the corks 
are placed upon a table, the back part of which is 
furnished with. boxes, the front part of which are 
open to the operator. To classify the corks accord- 
ing to size, they also employ wooden boxes, the 
bottoms of whicli can be taken out or j)ut in, having 
a kind of grating of wood somewhat resembling 
Venetian blinds. The boxes are suspended by ropes 
to the ceiling, and the workman gives it a' swing 
backwards and forwards, by which the smaller corks 
drop out at the bottom. With this apparatus worked 
by one man, 100,000 corks are classified for their size 
in one day. The corks are washed in a solution of 
oxalic acid or bioxalate of potash. As soon as washed 
they are placed out to dry gradually in the shade, 
in order to enable them to retain the silky gloss 
which the cork has when it is damp. For packing, 
30,000 corks constitute what is called a bale. For 
South America and Oceania, bales consisting of 5,000 
to 10,000 corks are made, and for England the sacks 
or bales are made to contain 100 gross or 14,400 
corks for those of the larger size, and 150 gross for 
those of smaller dimensions. The greatest number 
of corks are manufactured in the province of Gerona, 
and the most important towns engaged in the in- 
dustry are San Filieu de Guixols, Palafrugell, and 
Cassa de la Selva. The number of workmen engaged 
in the cork industry in Spain is said to be not less 
than 12,000.— Tounial of the Societi/ of Aits. 
UOAL AND IRON IN INDIA. 
The recent news from home about the eeriouB strike 
in the coal trudo may have a most important bearing 
oc tHese products of the Eaat. It is often forgottea 
that the Indian Government is probably the largest 
owner of these two pillars of prosperity in the civilised 
world. There are thirty thoua*nd square miles of 
coal strata in Imiia, the corresponding area in England 
is lefs lhan twelve thousand, and, says Pliilip'i, all the 
European holds do not contain as mach coal as the 
coal mcasnresof Great Britain. In the United States 
and China aloao there are, it is believed, coalfioldg 
surpasning those of ludia and England in area and 
va'uo. England hss been using up her ooal recently 
to the (xtuit of about one huu Jred and fifty million 
tons per aiinuoi, the outturn having increased from 
sixty-four millions in 1S55, and the export having 
nioro then treliled in twenty. three yearp. Such being 
the rather alarming situaticm, In a committeolwas 
hold to discuss tho exhaustion of our coal bods and 
tlio prob»blo duratiga of out lennktoiug Buupli^j 
