138 FAMILY BOSTRYCHIDAE 



Military Works, Forest Department, and many other minor departments it 

 means a constantly recurring annual expenditure on petty works ; and many 

 also know the difficulties which stand in the path of the lance, the tent- 

 pegging, and hog-spear purveyor. The results that attended the treat- 

 ment of the 9,000 bamboos in 1903 are well worthy of the consideration 

 of all of these, for on present observations it has been shown that the 

 impregnation with the oil leaves the bamboo strong and serviceable two and 

 a half years after it has been cut. That the Telegraph Department has 

 the fullest confidence in a discovery the full credit of which chiefly belongs 

 to it is borne out by the fact that an additional 30,000 bamboos were put 

 through the treatment and converted into field telegraph posts in 1905. 

 The treatment consists in first soaking the bamboos in water for five days 

 (this is very necessary, for reasons previously given), allowing them to 

 dry for several days, and then resoaking them in the Rangoon oil (crude 

 petroleum), this latter, as used in the workshops, having the consistency 

 of treacle. 



That the use of the bamboo as a field telegraph and telephone post has a great future 

 before it was proved by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese campaign. The following note 

 upon the subject appeared in the Allahabad Pioneer : " Every general of brigade in the field 

 is 'at the end of a wire' which his divisional commander controls, and the generals of divisions 

 are in touch by telegraph or telephone with the corps commander. The engineers run wires 

 after the columns with marvellous rapidity. Firing is heard somewhere at the front. A 

 detachment of engineers emerges from head-quarters, pack ponies carrying bundles of light 

 bamboo poles, while coolies and carts follow them with coils of slender copper wire. The 

 poles, which have pointed ends, are quickly planted, the wire spreads out as fast as men can 

 uncoil it, and a field telephone is at work." As having a bearing upon the experiments and 

 results attained in India, Mr. Y. Hara, Chief of the Japanese Forest Bureau, was addressed 

 with the object of ascertaining whether the bamboo field-posts used by his countrymen were 

 subjected to any treatment. His reply would seem to show that in this matter Japan is in the 

 position occupied by India before the discovery of the oil treatment. He wrote : " In answer 

 to your inquiries with regard to protection of our bamboos, I would state that although the 

 method of preserving bamboos in the field is not well known, there are three processes of 

 treatment generally adopted by our people 



(1) The season of cutting September and October. 



(2) The fumigation in sulphur. 



(3) Application of both of these processes." 



In reply to a reference on the subject the Superintendent of the 



Telegraph Workshops wrote as follows on 20 Sep- 



The Treated Bamboos i j 



in 1909. tember 1909 : In 1904 some 15,000 posts were made 



(i.e. soaked in water and Rangoon oil), the majority of 



which were afterwards stored in a heap in an open shed in this yard 

 until quite recently. It was found that wiping them over once a year with 

 earth oil gave absolute protection from the borer." 



Now, the yard in which these bamboos were stacked may be said to be 

 situated in the heart of an area infested by the beetle borers. In the neigh- 

 bourhood are native depots containing hundreds of thousands of bamboos in 

 which the beetles are to be found in millions. 



