Cork Tree’s Foliage
The cork-producing territory covers practically the whole of Portugal, sweeps toward the east through the southern districts of Spain known as Andalusia and Estremadura, thence northeast, embracing thousands of acres of forests in Catalonia.
Pile of Bark in the Forest
Algeria, with Tunis, ranks next in importance in yearly tribute of bark, southern France, including Corsica, following closely after. Italy, too, with the help of Sardinia and Sicily, continues to be quite a factor in meeting the demand for the crude material, while across the Strait of Gibraltar the sun-scorched forests of Morocco are as yet undeveloped. The total area covered by cork forests is estimated at from four to five million acres, while the annual production of bark is declared to be not far from fifty thousand tons. Although no official statistics are obtainable, these figures approximate the truth. In Portugal and Spain, particularly in Catalonia, which is probably the greatest cork manufacturing district in the world, a large portion of the corkwood produced goes to supply domestic factories, where more and more machinery is being introduced every year. With these exceptions, however, the major part of the yield is exported to the United States, England, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Denmark, or Sweden, to be turned into finished form.
Weighing Bark in the Forest
The cork oak, known botanically as Quercus suber, attains a height of from twenty to sixty feet and measures sometimes as much as four feet in diameter. Its wide-spreading branches are rather closely covered with small evergreen leaves, thick, glossy, slightly serrated, and downy underneath. In April or May flowers of a yellowish color appear, succeeded by acorns which ripen and fall to the ground in the late fall. Pliny evidently knew whereof he wrote, for the cork oak’s acorns are bitter and not at all pleasant to the taste.
