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EXTENT OF CORK INDUSTRY 35
business for all. and the industry expanded until it surpassed
the expectations of the most optimistic. In fact, a shortage
of corkwood came about in Spain ; and. in an effort to fill
the demands, the cork bark was stripped from the trees more
frequently than was usual or desirable, and as a consequence
the grade deteriorated until the situation became alarming.
25.—<strong>Cork</strong> a National Necessity.—The Spanish Government
then passed the necessary laws to ])rotect its cork forests as
FIG. 26.—CORK REFUSE—USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MANY
"ARTIFICIAL" CORK PRODUCTS.
a national necessity, these laws governing the stripping of
the corkwood from the trees. But the demand for corkwood
kept right on growing in other countries, and the raw stock
came to be so heavily exported from Spain and Portugal that
it finally interfered so seriously with the local production of
finished cork products as to bring about a convention of the
principal representatives of the cork industry in Madrid, in
December, 1911. Resolutions were passed calling upon the
Spanish Government to impose an export duty on corkwood,
ranging from about 90 cents to $90.00 per ton.
New export duties were then decided upon by the Govern-