UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1329 
Washingfon, D. C. 
May, 1925 
BAMBOOS: THEIR CULTURE AND USES IN THE UNITED STATES 
By B. T. Galloway, Olfice of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, Bureau of 
Plant Industry 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Introduction 1 
Botanj'- of the bamboos 4 
Cultural types 6 
Giant timber bamboo ^ 7 
Stake and forage-crop bamboo_ 8 
Dwarf hardy bamboo 9 
Hairy sheath edible bamboo 10 
Smooth -sheath edible bamboo 11 
Variegated I'hyllostachys 11 
Calcutta fish-rod bamboo 12 
Naked-culm clump bamboo 13 
Available and prospective types- 14 
Uses of bamboo 14 
Farm-home groves 18 
Bamboos and poultry 19 
Bamboos and rural school 
grounds 19 
Windbreaks, hedges, and 
screens 20 
Bamboos as forage and graz- 
ing crops " ' 20 
Bamboos for edible purposes 20 
Commercial uses 21 
Page 
Uses of bamboo — Continued. 
Bamboos for timber 23 
Bamboos as paper-making ma- 
terial 1_ 25 
Minor uses 25 
Propagation and culture 26 
Bamboos as ornamentals 33 
Bamboo diseases 37 
Bamboo smut 37 
Bamboo rust 37 
Melanconium culm disease 38 
Bamboo insects 39 
Bamboo scale 39 
Asterolecanium miiiaris long-um_. 40 
Cottony bamboo scale 40 
Leucaitpis bambusae 41 
Long-tailed mealybug 41 
Bamboo plant-louse 42 
Bamboo mite 42 
Prionid root-borer 42 
Japanese sheath mite 42 
Literature cited 45 
INTRODUCTION 
Ever since the organization of systematic work in plant introduc- 
tion in the United States Department of Agriculture more than 25 
years ago interest has been maintained in bamboos and their prob- 
able uses in this country. We have no native bamboos worthy of the 
name, our nearest approach to the many varied and wonderful 
forms of other countries being the Arundinarias of the Southern 
States. There are two native species of Arundinaria, one the giant 
cane found in rich alluvial bottoms from Virginia to Kentucky 
southward and the other the so-called " switch " cane, forming 
dense brakes and occurring from northern Virginia southward and 
westward througli southern Ohio to southwestern Missouri. 
During the past 25 years the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant 
Introduction has imported into this country more than 60 inven- 
toried numbers of bamboos, representing 12 important genera. 
27097°— 25 1 
