bamboos: their culture and uses 19 
They were used in the construction of a tea house. This grove should 
yield from 200 to 400 good canes each year. This is of course an 
exceptional case, but it shows that opportunities for profit are not 
lacking. 
The small stake bamboo will prove not onl}^ a valuable plant for 
many purposes already described but may be found useful as a for- 
age crop. It has been grown experimentally in Georgia and other 
States for this purpose. So there vrould appear to be many good 
and sufficient reasons for the development of several hundred thou- 
sand of what might be called acre home groves, especially on our 
southern farms. The cost of developing such a grove would be 
small, and its care would not be a burden. 
Just a precautionary word or two should be said regarding the 
tendency of these plants to spread when once they get a foothold. 
Some care is required to keep them within bounds, but as a rule this 
can be done by the timely digging of any offshoots that may appear 
beyond the border of the planted area. 
Further details regarding these matters will be given in consider- 
ing the propagation and culture of bamboos. 
BAMBOOS AND POULTRY 
During the past 15 to 18 j^ears there has developed in the Southern 
States a commendable line of work involving the organization of 
boys' and girls' clubs for the growing of poultry and pigs and for 
other purposes. Bamboos and poultry make a happy combination, 
and their use in this connection is strongly recommended. A grove 
not only furnishes excellent protection from hawks and other birds 
of prey but provides shelter from the hot smis of summer and the 
chilling winds of the colder months. (PL IX, fig. 1.) As already 
pointed out, coops, roosting places, and poultry houses can be 
provided from the surplus canes. The droppings furnish an excel- 
lent fertilizer for the bamboo plants. At Brooksville, Fla., one end 
of a large block of giant timber bamboos has been used as a 
chicken run for a number of years. These plants are now the 
strongest and best of the block, many of them being 35 feet high. 
It would be practicable to cut 30 to 40 fine canes from each square 
rod of this block and still leave enough for continued growth and 
reproduction. Bamboos can therefore be recommended as a feature 
of boys' club work, and especially in connection with the growing 
of poultry. 
County agents and others in the Southern States identified with 
boys' club work may find it well worth while to call special attention 
to the possibilities of bamboo growing as a part of their demonstra- 
tion activities. 
BAMBOOS AND RURAL SCHOOL GROUNDS 
Hural school grounds are often bare spots, and within certain 
limits this bareness is necessary from the very nature of the uses 
to which the grounds are subjected. For actual utilization pur- 
poses as well as for a?sthetic reasons some bamboos should find a place 
on rural school grounds. The larger forms, such as the giant timber 
bamboo, will give a very grateful shade at all seasons and will also 
prove a protection against wind and storms. The smaller kinds, 
