32 BULLETIN 1329^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTTJEB 
arrived. The plants may be left in the frame for a year and then 
transplanted to the nursery or field, as desired. 
Seed of Bavibos tulda is not available in this country. It would 
have to be secured from abroad, and inasmuch as all such material 
is quarantined it would need to go before the Federal Horticultural 
Board at Washington and be treated before being released. 
As to the care of bamboo groves after they have become estab- 
lished, the proper harvesting of the poles, and the manipulation of 
the cut material so as to make it most useful, it is impossible to 
speak with authority, as experience is lacking. Nor can much in- 
formation along this line be obtained from any of the published data 
available. No one from this country with a full knowledge as to 
our practical needs has been able to make a sustained study of the 
subject. There are many fragmentary notes and comments, but 
these are often so conflicting and so at variance with anything 
within reach that they can not be of use. Nor can much help be 
obtained from statements of what has been accomplished by growers 
in the south of Europe and in the countries of North Africa. As 
already pointed out, we must necessarily work out our own methods. 
It is evident that our groves must have care. The}^ can not be left 
to themselves any more than a good wood lot can be left alone and 
be expected to prosper. 
The practices in*the care of a grove will be (1) thinning, (2) 
fertilization, and (3) cutting. 
In the matter of thinning, attention may be called to two groves, 
one near Savannah, the Barbour Lathrop grove, and the other at 
Brooksville, Fla. The first grove has been thinned, whether inten- 
tionally or not is unknown. The culms number from 36 to 48 per 
square rod. Bamboos of the same variety at Brooksville, although 
not so old, have not been thinned, with the result that the culms 
are seriously crowding each other and undoubtedly checking growth. 
Here the number of culms per square rod runs from 110 to 215. 
Fairchild (^.), in speaking of this matter, says: 
For the first three years at least all the shoots that appear should be allowed 
to mature, but after the grove is once well established only the largest shoots 
should be permitted to grow, the others being cut out as soon as they appear 
above the ground. This thinning process throws the strength of the plants 
into a comparatively few large culms and gradually increases the height and 
strength of the forest. 
Sir Ernest Satow {13) deals with the matter of thinning in this 
way: 
The plantation must be neither too thick nor too sparse. If too many stems 
are cut out and the spaces left are large, the sun's rays penetrate, the stems 
turn yellow, the pipe becomes thin, the knots become enlarged, the ground 
gets dry, and the fertilizing principle evaporates, so that the good cnnes 
gradually decrease in number and the plantation finally becomes thin and 
impoverished. It is therefore not advisable to leave in stems more than 4 
years of age. but the plantation should always be left so dense that even in 
broad daylight it shall be pervaded by semiobscurity. The sun's rays should 
not penetrate; otherwise the soil will not remain constantly moist. The 
fallen leaves and rubbish decay and rot naturally, producing a constant supply 
of humns, and the canes preserve a deep-green color. In this way the planta- 
tion gradually i)roduces a good class of canes, both stout and tall, and presents 
a handsome appearance. 
In order to tliin intelligently, some method of marking the culms 
is necessary. Labels fall or may be knocked off. Copper tacks 
