bamboos: their culture and uses 15 
The boatman's raft and the pole with which he punts it along ; his ropes, 
his mat-sails, and the ribs to which they are fastened ; the palanquin in which 
the stately mandarin is borne to his office, the bride to her wedding, the coffin 
to the grave ; the cruel instruments of the executioner, the lazy painted beauty's 
fan and parasol, the soldier's spear, quiver, and arrows, the scribe's pen, the 
student's book, the artist's brush and the favorite study for his sketch ; the 
musician's flute, mouth-organ, plectrum, and a dozen various instruments of 
strange shapes and still stranger sounds — in the making of all these the bam- 
boo is a first necessity. Plaiting and Avicker-work of all kinds, from the coars- 
est baskets and matting down to the delicate filigree with which porcelain 
cups are encased — so cunningly that it would seem as if no fingers less deft 
than those of fairies could have woven the dainty web — -are a common and 
obvious use of the fiber. The same material made into great hats like Inverted 
baskets protects the coolie from the sun, while the laborers in the rice fields 
go about looking like animated haycocks in waterproof coats made of the dried 
leaves of bam.boo sewn together. See at the corner of the street a fortune-teller 
attracting a crowd around him as he tells the future by the aid of slips of bam- 
boo graven with mysterious characters and shaken up in a bamboo cup, and 
every man around him smoking a bamboo pipe. 
See in yonder cook-shop the son of Han regaling himself with a mess of 
bamboo shoots, which have been cooked in a vessel of the same material coated 
with clay, and are eaten with chop-sticks which may have grown on the same 
parent stem. Such shoots, either in the shape of pickles or preserved in 
sugar, are an article of export from south to north, where they are esteemed 
a delicacy. 
It is impossible to foresee what the future has in store for the bam- 
boo in this country. That this group is worthy of serious study 
and effort is beyond q^uestion. Who knows but some day these giant 
grasses may play an important role in our welfare. As our forests 
disappear and the need is more and more felt for quick-growing and 
easily worked wood material the bamboo may find an important 
place here, as it has found a vital niche in the countries of the Old 
World. The plant is preeminently oriental and when transplanted 
elsewhere behaves as if it were not entirely happy. It is more than 
likely that we do not possess that sympathetic inherent knowledge 
necessary to get the most from the plants ; we have not known them 
long enough. This is certainly true w hen it comes to utilization, for 
it must be admitted that we are w^oefully ignorant as to the proper 
way to prepare and use the parts of the plants we have grown. 
This work is evidently a fine art, for it is hardl}^ conceivable that 
climate and soil could so modify the plants as to make them unfit for 
the multitude of purposes for which they are used at home. 
In England and southern Europe, where the bamboo has been 
cultivated much longer than here, little is known regarding its 
utilization. Volumes have been written on the culture of bamboos 
in Europe, but we have yet to find very much of a definite nature 
regarding the commercial or domestic utilization of the home-grown 
product. Freeman-Mitford says that it is to be regretted that a plant 
so rich in economic value in its native home is suitable only for 
ornament in England. He consulted a leading umbrella manu- 
facturer of London, who told him that he found the bamboo canes 
from the south of France unfit for umbrella handles on account of 
their brittleness and liability to split. He adds that it is hard to 
think that out of such a wealth of material Europe can not even 
achieve the humble triumph of an umbrella handle. 
This country has many advantages over England in a w ider range 
of soil and climate, and some of the bamboos have been grown long 
enough to warrant the belief that aside from their future potential 
