14 



Mr. Routiedge's proposes to increase the yield per acre, by 



scheme not -. . i , , TT- 



economical. making several annual cuttings. Know- 

 ing that the bamboo only sends out one set of shoots 

 in the year, I wrote and asked the author to kindly 

 elucidate his meaning ; and he tells me that he pro- 

 poses to stimulate growth by a system of artificial 

 irrigation ; in fact, to use nearly his own words, he 

 would pursue a system almost analogous to that 

 followed in the culture of asparagus, and with 

 meadows under sewage or plain irrigation. The 

 heavy cost which such a process would necessarily 

 involve, of itself, to my mind, condemns his proposi- 

 tion on the ground of economy alone. 



14. I will now go on to consider the operations 

 following the delivery of the green stems 



sal ( s at the central factory. Mr. Routledge 

 writes at page 11 : " Now although the stems of 

 Bamboo, after cutting and crushing, may, as I have 

 shewn, be dried (and will when dried give a yield of 

 60 per cent, of fibre), still their bulk and extreme 

 lightness would preclude importing them to this 

 country, not merely from their heavy cost of car- 

 riage, but from their liability to damage from fer- 

 mentation. For these economical considerations, 

 therefore, I propose to reduce the Bamboo into 

 fibrous stock where grown or produced." At p. 10 

 the author explains the process requisite to reduce 

 the dried, succulent stems to fibrous stock in the 

 following words : " The stems are passed through 

 heavy crushing rolls in order to split and flatten 

 them, and at the same time crushing the knots or 



