The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1878-06-26

CWGuLy- y-GlrcG anu bWCuty seven feet
high, attained in y little more than
twenty years.
It's leaves are evergreen. but the
greater part of them fall and are re-
newed in the spring; they are oyate,
thich, slightly toothed, OF a LIGHT
green on the upper surface, and glau-
cous underneath. The acorns are
rather large, oval, and half enclosed
in q conical cup. and being of a
sweetish taste, are eagerly deyourcd
by swine.
The wood is hard, compact, and
heavy, but less durable than the com
mon European oak, particularly when
exposed to humidity. The worth of
the tree resides in its bark, which be-
gins to be taken off at the age of
twenty-five years. The first growth
is of little value; in ten years it is
renewed, but the second product,
though less cracked than the first, is
not thick enough for bottle corks. It
is not until the tree is forty-iye or
fifty years old that the bark possesses
all the qualities requisite for good
corks, and from that period it is col.
lected once in eight or ten years.
Its thickness is owing to the extraor.
dinary swelling of the cellular tissue.
1t is better fitted than any other sub
stance for the use to which it is ap-
propriated, as It's elasticity exactly
adapts it to the neck of bottle, and
its inpenetrable strucenFe refuses
exit to the fluid.
Had my edition of Michauxs
great work been deferred till this
date, lit was published ID 1851 and
two editions issued, I shonld have
added that gutta percha and gum
elastic have been tried with some sue.
cess with a view of suIerseding
cork, but the heavier cost ard imper-
feet adaptability are SO grcas that as
long as the true cork is Obi Enable all
substitutes yet tried viii ID found
greatly inferior. 1t M yS ore be
added that n vast poIAl SSof the
scnrl ~ ;ss,s.-.
declined by European users The
best is taken by the champagne bot
tiers abroad. The bottled wines of
this country are remarkable for their
inferior corkage, and Matthews would
have found very often a difficulty in
taking drawings of them.
July and August are the seasons
for gathering cork. Two opposite
longitudinal incisions are made
through the whole length of the
trunk of the tree, and two Others,
transverse to the first, at the extrem.
tiles; the bark is then detached by
a hatchet-handle like q
wedge. Great care must be taken
not to wound the alburnum. as the
bark IS never renewed upop the in
jured parts. After being scraped,
the bark is heated on it's convex side
and laden with stones, to flatten it
and render it easier Of transporta.
ton. 1t should be from fifteen to
twenty inches thick.
Michaux, who is an authority, as
serts that this tree wonld be an impor-
tant acquisition to the United States.
and would grow wherever the live
oak subsists. This region may be |
said to commence about the latitude |
Of Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and ex |
tended to the Gulf of Mexico. In much |
Of this region land is only worth, saw, |
from one to three and five dollars the |
acre. If a man was desirous of found /
ng a family, he should plant these |
acres, or some of them, with cork.
walnut, locust, larch, catalpa, and |
other trees if he selects his land with
his children and grand |
children can and will supply the
great demand which is to come for
'ailroad ties, furniture, car builders
md the thousand artificers who are
always demanding more wood The
park of the cork tree will always be in
demand. We have quotations every
week Of the Quercitron used by tan
lers, it is within the possibilities that
quotations of cork oak bark will here
ltter be made at one hundred times
he value of the "tanners bark. "
Though the time for receiving re.
urn for planting cork seems long
'ne, let US remember that the black
ak has taken quite IS many years to
'roduoe its bark. and that when strip