The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1890-08-22
CORK TREE FORESTS.
They WIN Thrive In California as wen {
In Spain or Africa

They VIII Thrive In CALIFORNIA; as Wen ~
In Spain or Africa
The available forests of cork trees are
already relatively extensive. although
hardly sufficient TO supply the demands
now made on them, or which as the
world grows in prosperity must be made
on them, for there is hardly any end TO
the uses for cork, and none of the sub
stitutes for it which have yet been tried
are very satisfactory or promise to take
its place to any great extent The latest
estimates of existing areas OF available
cork oak forests make their extent from
s, 500. 600 to $500. 600 acres. of which
about oRe-half, including those on its
African possessions, belongs to France.
The wood of the cork oak is heavy,
coarse-grained and of ye1low-brown
color; il shrinks and warps badly in sea-
soning and decays rapidly when exposed
to the action of the atmosphere It has
little value in the arts. but furnishes
useful fuel and makes good charcoal.
The inner bark is rich in tannin. and
trees too old or unfit to produce cork are
cut for the sake of the inner bark.
The cork oak is an interesting tree to
Americans, as its cultivation now seems
destined to become an important indus
try in California, where the climate and
the soil in many parts of the State are
admirably suited to produce it This is
not mere theory. as trees have been
growing now for several years in Cali
fornia and have already produced crops
of cork of excellent quality. Il is prob
able that the tree viii grow rather more
rapidly in California than it does in its
native country, although the quality of
the soil. the exposure in which the
trees are placed, local climate. and
the treatment which the trees receive
will influence. of course, the rapidity
with which the bark is developed
In Africa it is found that the trees
which grow the most rapidly produce
bark of the poorest quality. and that
within certain limits the slower the
trees grow the more valuable the
product provided the growth is not
too slow, in which case the bark loses
some of the elasticity which makes
it valuable. The conditions which
influence. the development of cork a-e
SO numerous and complicated that the
product of all the trees in grove or
forest can never attain the same uni
formity of thickness or quality in any
given time. This is so well understood
in the countries where cork is grown
that the best methods of harvesting
has been found to be to go over the for
est every two or three years and remove
the bark from such trees as are covered
with merchantable cork and not to strip
all the trees at the same time. All
these matters must of course be consid-
cred in connection with planting forests
of cork oak in California. The planting
and care of such forests in Portugal and
Spain has long been an important indus
try, and there is no reason why they
may not be made so in California, where
the local consumption of cork is already
enormous, although the wine industry
there is hardly more than in its infancy.
Garden and Forest
The Esermudz- H 1TIfsx Cable.
Considerable interest attaches to the
laying of a cable between Bermuda and
Halifax, and its completion will mark
new era in the history of the island.
An American electrician who has Just
returned from the Bermudas points out
how much more paradoxica1 the absence
/ of Biographical communication there Is
/ from the fact that it is an important
British naval and coaling station. with
one of the largest floating dry docks in
the world, and large military garrison,
] and that the prosperity of the island is
mainly dependent on its export of vege-
tables, which brings in revenue of over
$3.50, o0o- The people have become alive
to the necessity of knowing what is GO
ing on in the world around them; they
are putting up better buildings. dredg-
/ ing the harbor channels so as to admit
the largest craft building docks and
wharyes, and now are placing themselves
in a position to reap the full advantage
of daily prices current This evidently
| ia not the end, for it is runored that
plans for an electric road are already
under consider tieu--N 7. Sun