LOCATION AND SOIL CONDITIONS. 19 



of 1 -year-old rhizome 3 feet or so long, rub the cut ends with wet 

 ashes, allow these wet ashes to dry, and pack carefully in a tight box 

 in fine, almost dry soil (PL VI, fig. 3). Upon arrival these rhizomes 

 are set out in properly prepared ground. The shipment should be 

 timed to arrive at its destination in the early spring, so that the cut- 

 tings can be set out at once. This method is recommended by Mr. 

 Mitford for the commercial nursery propagation of the bamboo, but 

 he does not advise its employment if the plants are to be shipped long 

 distances, and the author has failed to find that it has been successfully 

 tried. Mr. John Rock, of Niles, Cal., thinks bamboos could be 

 propagated quickly in this way. 



Even with the best of care in transplanting by the first described 

 method the Japanese bamboo growers count on losing at least 10 per 

 cent of their young plants, and if the conditions are not altogether 

 favorable, as high as 20 per cent of failures may be expected. 



SUITABLE LOCATION AND SOIL CONDITIONS FOR BAMBOOS. 



In Japan some of the best groves are surrounded by paddy fields, 

 and the soil is a rich, stiff loam, lightened with a mixture of sand. 

 Those visited by the writer are on the open plain and stretch up and 

 down a small brook for 5 miles or more. Whatever winds blow over 

 this small plain must strike the forests, but it is safe to sa}^ that such 

 winds are not strong ones. A favorite site for a bamboo grove is the 

 base of some range of hills or a broad valley where some mountain 

 stream has brought down and deposited a mass of alluvium. These 

 situations have the double advantage of suitable soil and shelter from 

 strong winds. This latter point is said by every grower to be an impor- 

 tant one, for the young shoot, as soon as it is tall enough to come in 

 contact with the branches of the older ones, is thrashed about by the 

 winds and its growing tip is injured. This injury stops its growth at 

 once and the resulting culm is imperfect. Wind-breaks of conifers 

 are sometimes planted to protect a grove which is in an exposed posi- 

 tion. In America, where the prevailing winds are probably as a rule 

 stronger than they are in Japan, special attention will have to be given 

 to this matter of wind-breaks. 



The quality of the soil on which a bamboo stem is grown influences 

 materially the texture of its wood. So fully is this realized by the 

 Japanese that there is one particular mountain side which has the 

 reputation of producing the hardest, flintiest bamboo in the country. 

 The culms grown at Togeppo are cut up and made into the cylindrical 

 ash boxes, or "haifuki," upon the edge of which the smokers strike 

 their metal-trimmed pipes in order to knock out the ashes. After 

 years of use the edge of the Togeppo ash box remains smooth, while 

 that made from a stem grown in the lowlands is splintered to pieces. 



