Cork!!

 Have you ever wondered where that cork in your bottle of wine comes from?
The answer is most likely to be Spain or Portugal, here over half of the world's cork is harvested.

In fact it is the National Tree of Portugal. However, unlike other forms of forestry, the production of cork never involves the death of a tree.
Instead, they are gently stripped, leaving a strange but fascinating landscape of denuded trunks.
All of this takes some time.  Cork trees can live to over 200 hundred years but are not
considered ready for their cork to be removed until they are at least 25 years old.

Even then, the first two harvests do not produce cork of the highest quality.

It isn't until the trees are in their forties that they produce premium cork. Once the trees have reached the maturity necessary to produce high quality cork then they will be harvested only every nine years. A tree, in its lifetime, can be harvested (the process is known as extraction) about fifteen times. The cork must, however, be extracted from the trees without causing any lasting harm to them,
otherwise, 9 years later they will be useless. The poor cork which is produced as a result of the first two harvests is known as male cork.  Later extractions provide what is known as gentle cork which is what you will screw out of a wine bottle,the contents of which it helps to flavor.

The extractors must be skilled at their job.  They make two cuts to the tree. The first is horizontal
and is cut around the tree.  This is known as the necklace and the incision is made at a height
around three times the circumference of the tree.

Then a series of vertical cuts are made which are called openings or rulers.

This is the point at which the extractors must use the most strength but at the same time be at their
most gentle.  They push the handle of the axe in to the rulers and pry the cork away.
If you are a fan of badminton, then without cork you would no longer be able to play.  it is a vital
component in the manufacture of shuttlecocks.  More sports rely on it too the centers of baseball
and cricket bats are made of cork.

Cork is also a great material to use for insulation.  It is non-allergenic and easy-to-handle and if it does
catch fire, its fumes are not toxic like man-made insulation materials.
Also used for flooring, bulletin boards and catching sunfish! More amenable to a cork screw , as well.

Krishnamachari Santhanam.