BAMBOOS: THEIR CULTURE AND USES 17 
trellises for summerhouses, can be quickly erected and taken down. 
Moonvines, morning-giories, and other climbers quickly make of 
these structures delightful shady retreats. Heavy poles 1 to 2 
inches in diameter can be used for grape trellises ancl the training 
of bush fruits, including blackberries and raspberries. Such trel- 
lises may be put together by lashing Avith ordinary cheap bale wire, 
usually found as a more or less waste product around farms. A 
single-pole trellis has been found an excellent support for tomato 
plants. Short pieces of bamboo 2i/^ feet long are driven in the 
ground along the rows of tomato plants; a horizontal pole 10 to 15 
feet long is then lashed to the top of the uprights. The tomato 
plants are tied to the horizontal poles. 
Bean poles^ pea stakes, and stakes for floioers and young trees. — 
Bamboos are admirable for all such uses. They are clean, hard, 
and ngid and may be used for several j^ears if taken up in the fall 
and protected from the weather. For peas, beans, and plants of 
this nature the bamboo with branches left on makes the best sup- 
ports. 
Fish poles and fi'uit pohs. — In nearly every neighborhood there 
is a local demand for good fishing poles. The timber bamboo 
{Ph^Uostachys bamhnsoides) furnishes excellent material of this 
kind. The grove at Brooksville, Fla., has been a sort of Mecca for 
the farmers of the whole county. Good fishing poles will readily 
sell for 25 to 50 cents each and would prove a source of consider- 
able revenue to the boy having several hundred of them each year. 
On the Pacific coast many thousands of bamboo poles are annually 
imported for use in gathering crops, principally prunes and almonds. 
Poles about 10 feet long are used for knocking fruit or nuts from 
the branches of the trees. 
Hay-curing 7'acks.—lii many parts of the Southern States, where 
cowpeas, so^^beans, and similar coarse hay crops are grown, it is 
often difficult to cure the material during the rainy season. If the 
crops are allowed to lie on the ground and are handled like ordinary 
grass hay many of the leaves are lost, and much of the value of the 
crop goes with them. Moreover, the constant Avetting leaches valu- 
able food material out of the hay. A bamboo pole 7 or 8 feet long 
with a crosspiece about 3 feet long lashed 2 feet from the bottom 
makes a good frame for a curing rack for coarse hay. A hole is 
made in the ground with a crowbar, and the pole is put in it to 
the depth of about a foot. This leaves the crossbar about 1 foot from 
the ground. The hay while still green and fresh and onl}^ slightly 
wilted is then built into small stacks around these poles, after the 
fashion of handling peanut hay. No further attention need be given 
the hay until it is ready to store in the barn, VN^hich will be in two or 
three weeks, depending on the weather. It is only necessary then 
to pull the pole from the ground, tip over the stack, and the rack 
readily slips out. The entire small stack can then be forked on to the 
wagon by two men working from opposite sides. Practically all 
the leaves are thus saved, and, besides, the hay is usually cured a 
beautiful green color, quite unlike that which has been bleached by 
many rains. 
Another type of hay-curing rack is suggested by David Bisset, 
of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, who has had 
27097°— 25 2 
