310 
CORK  AND  ITS  USES. 
find  that  there  are  two  sorts  or  qualities  known  in  commerce, 
called  respectively  white  and  black  cork.  The  white,  which  is 
chiefly  produced  in  the  south  of  France,  is  the  best,  as  it  is 
smoother,  of  a  more  even  and  finer  grain,  and  freer  from  holes 
and  knots. 
The  operation  of  cork-cutting  is  one  requiring  great  dexterity 
and  neatness,  and  is  carried  on  to  a  great  extent  both  in  France 
and  England,  though,  as  might  be  supposed,  the  French  surpass 
the  English  in  this  art.  Machinery  has  been  tried  for  the  pur- 
pose of  cork-cutting,  but  all  is  now  cut  by  hand.  Considering 
the  difficulty,  with  which  Ave  are  all  acquainted,  of  cutting  a  clean 
surface  to  cork,  it  is  surprising  to  see  the  rapidity  with  which 
the  workman  turns  out  a  perfect  cork  stopper  from  the  little 
square  pieces  furnished  to  him.  The  knife  used  for  this  purpose 
has  necessarily  to  be  very  sharp,  as  well  as  being  very  thin ;  the 
blade  is  broad,  and  when  the  edge  has  become  dull,  it  is  quickly 
sharpened  on  a  very  fine-grained  stone.  The  bench  or  tube  at 
which  the  workman  sits  has  a  ledge  round  it  to  prevent  the  corks 
falling  off.  On  the  Continent,  a  notch  is  made  in  the  edge  of 
the  bench  to  place  the  back  of  the  knife  in,  to  prevent  it  from 
slipping.  Thus  the  edge  is  uppermost,  and  the  knife  has  to  be 
guided  slightly  while  the  cork  is  pressed  against  the  edge,  and 
so  dexterously  turned  and  rounded  to  the  required  form.  All 
the  corks  thus  cut  are  thrown  into  a  basket  to  be  sorted,  which 
is  usually  done  by  women  and  boys. 
The  great  importance  of  cork  as  a  commercial  article  has  been 
the  cause  of  experiments  being  tried  for  its  introduction  into  the 
Southern  States  of  North  America.  It  is,  however,  some  years 
since  the  American  Government  tried  this  plan  of  naturalization, 
for  which  purpose  large  quantities  of  the  acorns  were  imported 
from  the  south  of  Europe.  More  recently,  we  learn,  from  Sir 
J.  VV.  Hooker's  last  Eeport  on  the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  that 
steps  are  now  being  taken  by  the  Colonial  Government  of  South 
Australia  to  introduce  the  cork  tree,  and  a  number  of  young 
plants  have  been  raised  at  Kew  expressly  for  transmission  to 
that  colony. 
We  sincerely  hope  that  these  efforts  to  establish  a  tree  fur- 
nishing so  useful  a  product  as  cork,  in  a  colony  where  it  would 
