24 JAPANESE BAMBOOS. 



have no "practical bearing on the profits of bamboo growing in 

 America, where a market for the culms can only be made after a con- 

 stant reasonable supply has been assured. 



The cost of the attention which is necessary in order to grow bam- 

 boos is so much less than that required for rice growing, suitable land 

 is so much cheaper, and so much less risk is run from bad weather, 

 that the statement that it is the best paying culture in Japan seems 

 correct, and such inquiries tend to confirm it. 



CULTURE OF THE EDIBLE BAMBOO. 



Only one species of bamboo is commonly grown in Japan for food, 

 and this is the largest one {Phyllostachys mitis), known as "Moso.'i 

 It was introduced from China, where its value as a food plant has been 

 known for centuries, and its common name indicates its origin." One 

 other sort, P. aurea, is also said to have edible shoots, but those of 

 the remaining kinds are understood to be too bitter to be eaten. 



The method of cultivating this species differs from that described 

 for the timber sorts. The best soil is a more friable one, and if not 

 naturally with a good admixture of sand it must be top dressed every 

 year with 1 inch of light sandy loam and a mulching of straw or grass 

 and weeds cut from the meadow. The young plants are set out more 

 sparsely than if designed for timber, not more than 120 to the acre. 

 Liquid manure is given freely to the newly set o^jt plants, and as long- 

 as they are grown for their edible shoots large amounts of rich ferti- 

 lizer containing much soluble nitrogen must be supplied them. In 

 Japan the cost of the fertilizer is the principal expense of cultivation. 

 In five years, if the transplanted mother plants are of good size, they 

 should yield shoots large enough -for sale, but ten } T ears are required 

 to bring the plantation into a profitable bearing condition. Weeding 

 is done more carefully than in timber groves, though for the first 

 five or six years all the shoots which come up are allowed to stand; 

 but later, when the plantation is established, all small-sized ones are 

 promptly removed as soon as they appear above ground. In order to 

 obtain a supply of fresh culms a regular system in cutting out the old 

 ones is followed. A definite number of selected stems, as soon as they 

 are fully grown, are marked with the year of their production, and 

 nine years later all of those bearing the same date are cut out. Each 

 spring the same number (about 80 per acre) of new culms are spared 

 from being dug out when small for market, and each autumn a similar 



f « Moso is the name of one of the twenty-four paragons of Chinese filial piety. 

 The story is the case of a boy whose widowed mother fell ill and longed for broth 

 made of young bamboo shoots. The shoots not being procurable in winter, his devo- 

 tion was such that he went out in the snow to dig for them. The gods rewarded his 

 devotion by causing the shoots to grow suddenly to an unheard-of size. Japanese 

 artists are fond of illustrating: their works of art with drawings of the boy Moso. 



