Cork under the Microscope] [Illustration: Bark arriving at a Boiling Station] [Illustration: The Common Carrier] [Illustration: A Boiling Station] [Illustration: A Wagon Load of Bark] The stripping generally takes place during July and August, and is a process which demands skill and care if injury to the tree is to be avoided. In Algeria, the French strippers sometimes use crescent-shaped saws; but under the usual Spanish method a hatchet with a long handle, wedge-shaped at the end, is the only implement employed. The bark is cut clear through around the base of the tree and a similar incision is made around the trunk just below the spring of the main branches; the two incisions are then connected by one or two longitudinal cuts, following so far as possible the deepest of the natural cracks in the bark. Inserting the wedge-shaped handle, the tree’s covering is then pried off, care being taken not to injure the inner skin at any stage of the process, for the life of the tree depends on its proper preservation; and if it is injured at any point, growth there ceases and the spot remains forever afterward scarred and uncovered. The larger branches are stripped in the same manner, yielding thinner but generally a finer grade of cork than that from the trunk. The thickness of the bark is anywhere from one-half to two and a half inches, while the yield also varies greatly--from forty-five to five hundred pounds--depending on the size and age of the tree. As the bark is removed it is gathered up in piles and left for a few days to dry. Having been weighed, it is next carried either in wagons or on the backs of burros to the boiling stations, where it is stacked and allowed to season for a few weeks. It is then ready for the boiling process, which at times is postponed until the crude material reaches Seville or some other shipping point. But if the forest is distant, the water supply adequate, and the quantity of bark ample to justify such procedure, the vats are erected at a convenient spot and this operation carried out on the ground. The outside of the bark in its natural state is, as may well be imagined, rough and woody, owing to exposure to the weather. After boiling, this useless outer coating is readily scraped off, thereby reducing the weight of the material almost twenty per cent. The boiling process also serves to remove the tannic acid, increases the volume and elasticity of the bark, renders it soft and pliable, and flattens it out for convenient packing. [Illustration: Factory at Seville, covering Twenty Acres] [Illustration] [Illustration: Trimming the Sheets of Bark at Seville] [Illustration] [Illustration: Corner of One of the Sorting Rooms at Seville]