PROFITS OF CULTURE. 23 



In Japan, where bamboos and rice are often grown in adjoining plats 

 of ground, some trouble is experienced from the underground stems 

 spreading into the neighboring fields. To prevent this a ditch 2 feet 

 wide and as many feet deep is dug about the grove and kept open by 

 several rediggings during the year. This method is said to be a satis- 

 factory one. It is a difficult matter, however, after a field has once 

 been planted to bamboos, to clear it satisfactorily for other crops, for 

 there is :i mass of these tough rhizomes that are very difficult to dig- 

 out. 



The harvesting of bamboo poles is not done before August, as 

 culms cut earlier than this date are likely to he attacked by insects, 

 not having had time to sufficiently harden. A Kyoto grower of black 

 bamboos remarked that the Kobe exporters, by insisting on having 

 their bamboos for export cut earlier than this date, had seriously 

 injured the foreign demand, as the quality of the wood was much 

 injured by this earh T harvest. 



A saw is often used in cutting the shoots, by making cuts on oppo- 

 site sides of it near the base. When cut, the poles are classified, tied 

 into bundles, and stacked like hop or bean poles to dry. In the 

 lumber yards of Japan these stacked poles of bamboo form a promi- 

 nent feature. 



PROFITS OF BAMBOO CULTURE IN JAPAN. 



Dr. Shiga, chief of the bureau of forest management of Japan, 

 when asked whether bamboo growing was profitable or not, said 

 promptly that it was the best paying plant culture in the country, 

 yielding a net return of 250 yen per hectare, which is the equivalent 

 of about $50 gold per acre. The species referred to by Mr. Shiga in 

 this case was the edible one. Twenty per cent of this amount repre- 

 sents the profits from the sale of edible shoots. Mr. Tsuboi's profits 

 on his groves of Phyllostachys quilioi, a strictly timber species, aver- 

 aged $20 an acre, while those of one of his friends near Kyoto were 

 $4:0. The profits of a good grove of edible bamboo are evidently 

 greater than those from one grown for timber only, and the author 

 was informed by one of the best bamboo growers near Kyoto that his 

 profits per acre were about $90 on land which, cleared of bamboo, 

 would not bring more than $80, while good rice land sold for $200. 

 A second grower of bamboos near Kyoto, who ships for the export 

 trade from Kobe, informed the writer that the culture in his province 

 of Phyllostachys <]>i!ll<>! yields a net income of about $4-0 per acre, 

 while /'. henonis brings in only about $30. Five years ago the black 

 bamboo brought in a profit of $200 per acre, but now scarcely nets $50. 

 Rice culture in this region, according to Mr. Tsuboi, barely pays more 

 than for the cost of labor and manure, the former reckoned at 35 to 

 40 sen, or 17^ to 20 cents gold, a day. All of these figures, however, 



