Part V.] Pearson: Note on the Utilization of Bamboo. 
27 
on a five-year rotation, there will be no harm done by cutting the 
other 50 per cent, of the new shoots. 
7. Size and weight of bamboos. 
Size and weight of culms of various species. —An important point is the 
size and weight of the culms of various species, as on these factors 
depends the facility and cost of their removal from the forest to the mill. 
Throughout this report the calculations of weights of dry bamboos and 
the yield per acre are based on the assumption that the nodes cannot 
be treated. This has been done for safety’s sake, as by so doing the 
possible yield in tons from a given area is reduced and the cost in¬ 
creased. If, however, as demonstrated by the recent tests carried 
out on commercial lines at the Titaghur Paper Mills with chopped 
bamboos and by Raitt in his laboratory experiments with crushed 
bamboo, the nodes can be reduced to pulp (about which there is now no 
doubt), the estimates of yield per acre in this report may be raised 15 
per cent, for B. arundinacea , 10 per cent, for B. polymorpha and C. 
pergracile, and 7 per cent, for M. hambusoides, while the cost of extraction 
may be reduced in proportion. 
The following is the average size and weight of culms of the four species 
here dealt with :— 
Species. 
No. of ! 
culms 
on which' 
the 
figures 
are 
based. 
Average 
weight 
of one 
green 
culm, in 
lbs. 
Average 
weight of 
one dry 
culm, in 
lbs. 
Weight 
of dry 
inter- 
nodes 
yielded 
by one 
culm, in 
lbs. 
Average 
length, 
in feet. 
Average 
mid¬ 
girth, in 
inches. 
Bambusa arundinacea . 
1,084 
62-0 
42-0 
35-7 
44-3 
8-9 
Bambusa polymorpha . 
400 
35-96 
Not known, as 
the nodes 
were cut out 
green. 
20-05 
43-6 
9-3 
Cephalostachyum per- 
gracile. 
400 
15-08 
Do. 
9-82 
33-05 
6-05 
Melocanna bambusoides 
10,575 
2-45 
1-55 
22-0 
3-8 
Note I.—The length of the culms was taken after cutting off the thin top where 
it was about one inch in girth, the figures being the average of culms cut in six districts 
of Bombay and Madras, four in Burma and one in Arakan. 
Note II.—For full details on which the above figures are based, see Appendices 
I to VI. 
Note III.—These figures are averages based on all countings made in various 
localities. 
[ 184 ] 
