396 REGENERATION BY MEANS OP CULMS, 



1. Exploitation annual. 



Theoretically it should be sufficient to leave standing only the 

 last two generations of shoots, together with whatever else is too 

 thin or too crooked to be marketable. Actually, however, there is 

 110 advantage of any kind in sparing crooked or unsound or weakly 

 shoots, and the clumps must in any case be kept open enough for 

 the unhindered appearance of numerous strong new shoots and the 

 easy extraction of produce. Hence, in practice, it is always 

 necessary to remove some at least of the shoots of those two genera- 

 tions,* obtaining the requisite compensation by preserving an equal 

 number of older healthy, straight and well-spaced shoots that are 

 still in tfie full vigour of vegetation. The spacing of the culms left 

 must in any case be proportionate to the requirements of the species 

 concerned and the nature of the soil and climate in question. 



The main principle to observe from the very beginning in tho 

 exploitation of a clump is that while it is still expanding, nothing 

 should be done to check its increasing vigour, and then, when it 

 has attained its maximum development, to keep unimpaired its 

 powers of vegetation. Both objects are fully secured by adhering 

 to the rule laid down in the immediately foregoing paragraph. 

 During the stage of expansion, the number and size of the shoots 

 of successive years forms, as we know, an increasing series, so that 

 the number and size of the shoots preserved in successive years, in 

 following the rule of exploitation laid down, will form a corres- 

 ponding increasing series, thereby fully providing for the conti- 

 nued expansion and increasing vigour of the clump. Then, when 

 in course of time the clump has attained its maximum develop- 

 ment, the average number and size of the shoots of each genera- 

 tion will remain the same from year to year, and thus the quantity 

 removed each year will be an exact measure of the annual pro- 

 duction and the maintenance of the equivalent of the last two 

 generations of shoots will guarantee a sustained yield. 



As it is often impossible to recognise with certainty all the shoots 

 of the last but one generation, it will be safe in practice, for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the number of shoots to be left in the 

 clump at the successive exploitations, to take double the number of 

 the current year's shoots. 



In the foregoing paragraphs it has been assumed that the clumps 

 to be exploited are taken in hand from the earliest years ; but ac- 

 tually the mass of our bamboo forests are not, or cannot be, brought 



* These shoots will furnish all the requirement;; of basket makers, who require 

 the soft, flexible, imperfectly-Jignified culms of the current season, 



