FAMILY H0STRYCHI1)A1<: i37 



{h) That the soakinj,^ in the copper sulphate solution be discontinued, since the experiments 

 have shown it to have no preservative effect against the beetles. 



{c) That the bamboos be allowed to dry in a covered shed for several days after the water 

 process. 



{(i) That, after drying, the bamboos be soaked for forty-eight hours in common 

 Rangoon oil. 



The Superintendent of the Telegraph Workshops informed me that the cost of the 



treatment as carried through by him, i.e. five days in water, five days 



Cost. in CuSO^, followed by several days' drying and then two separate 



soakings (at an interval of a couple of months) of twenty-four hours 



■each in Rangoon oil, amounted to Rs. 3 to Rs. 5 per 100 6-ft. lengths, or 6.3 pies per length. 



This includes the labour. 



Omitting the CUSO4 treatment and a second soaking in the oil, together with the additional 

 handling involved, should effect a saving in this price, although of course the longer period of 

 soaking in oil will enable the bamboos to absorb more of this commodity than they would in 

 the shorter one of twenty-four hours only. 



In 1905 a visit was paid to the Telej^raph Workshops with the object 



of ascertaining how the treated bamboos which had 



Summary of Observa- been converted into telegraph posts had fared, and 



''""'raadl^hS*.'"^"* especially how those which had been sent on service 



with the Tibet Expedition had faced the ordeal and 



in what condition they had returned. 



At the workshops" I found that it was easy to trace the history of the 

 bamboos treated in 1903, all of which had been converted into field telegraph 

 posts, a stage further in their career. 



The evidence collected both in the use of the posts in the field and, 

 equally important, by their storage in an open shed in the workshop yard 

 in Calcutta without any special protection being afforded to them points 

 to the wonderful efficacy of the oil treatment. 



Some of the bamboos converted in 1903 and sent up that year 

 for service with the Tibet Mission were returned to store in Calcutta 

 about the beginning of 1905, and Mr. L. Truniger, CLE., who was 

 in charge of the Field Telegraph with the mission, has stated that they 

 had fully answered expectations. The returned posts were inspected 

 by the writer in the yard at Calcutta towards the end of March 1905. 

 Although it was two and a half years since they were cut in the forests 

 of Upper India, and close upon two years since they were treated with the 

 oil, they showed no trace of attacks by the Dinoderus bamboo beetle. 

 It may be contended, and justly, that throughout 1904 these posts had been 

 at an "^altitude greatly above that at which either of the shot-borer beetles 

 could or do live, and that they were thus safe from their attacks. This was 

 so, but the same argument does not hold good when we come to consider 

 those converted bamboos which remained throughout the year in store in 

 Calcutta. An inspection of these has shown that they had remained equally 

 immune from the pest. Those who use it are aware how short is the life, 

 economicallv, of the bamboo after it has been cut. To the Public Works, 



