26 BULLETIN 1329^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE 
raw material in workable, usable quantities must always precede 
manufacturing exploitation. This is tantamount to saying that for 
a good many years our major efforts must be in the direction of 
encouraging the development of plantations of the kinds of bamboos 
likely to be useful for manufacturing purposes. Even this line of 
work is not without serious difficulties, chiefl}^ because the bamboo is 
not unlike forest trees as a crop. Americans have not the patience of 
those in older countries who are often content to plant not for the 
present but for the benefit of future generations. 
PROPAGATION AND CULTURE 
Bamboos are both easy and difficult to propagate. T\lien all con- 
ditions are right the plants are readily increased; when conditions 
are not favorable no amount of effort gives success. 
There are three principal methods of propagating bamboos: (1) 
By seeds, (2) by division, or splitting up the clumps, and (3) by cut- 
ting off and planting the rhizomes, or underground stems. The 
rareness of the seeds and the difficulties attending propagation hj 
division explain in part why the bamboos have spread so slowly 
over the earth. The divided plants will not stand long-distance 
shipment unless great precautions are taken. This is one reason why 
the development of plantations in the United States must necessarily 
be slow. In the Orient, and particularly in China and Japan, the 
clumps of plants most suitable for the establishment of new groves 
never need to be transported very far. It is usually a matter of 
neighborhood arrangement and almost wholly of man labor. This 
makes the plants very cheap, as the major cost involved is that of 
lifting and moving. On the other hand, the shipment of a 10 or 15 
pound clump containing two or three good plants for a hundred or a 
thousand miles in this country makes the cost nearly prohibitive. _ 
Then, again, there is always involved the danger of shipping 
clumps of plants containing soil around the roots. Some of our 
worst crop pests have been spread in this way. This is why the 
Federal Horticultural Board no longer permits the entry of so-called 
" balled " plants, with soil on the roots. The days, therefore, when 
500 pounds or 1,000 pounds of bamboo clumps could be imported 
from any foreign country are past. All these matters and many 
more make it necessary to attack the problem of bamboo propagation 
along lines more or less new. As yet a start in this direction has 
hardly been made. It is hoped that enough has been done, however, 
to point tlie way for others who may wish to attack the problem. 
The bamboos just described, with the exception of Bamhos tulda, 
may all be propagated by division; that is, the parent, usually con- 
sisting of one or more plants in a clump, may be divided in such 
fashion that each piece will consist of a good rhizome containing 
one or more buds or eyes, a supply of roots, and, where practicable, 
a small portion of the culm, or stem. In order tliat this matter may 
be understood clearly, let us examine tlie underground ])arts of the 
creeping bamboos and point out the essentials in propagation. (PL 
XI, figs. 1 and 2.) 
If a young clump of any of the Phyllostachys bamboos is exam- 
ined in early summer young plants Avill be found coming up on the 
