14 
Indian Forest Records . 
[Vol. Ill 
it forces ns to tlie conclusion that the maximum yield of cellulose can only 
be obtained from bamboo which is not merely dry but is also seasoned. 
Such seasoning is well understood by the native of this country who, 
being desirous of increasing the durability of his building bamboos, has¬ 
tens the process by immersing them, immediately after being cut, in run¬ 
ning streams or tidal creeks for several weeks. He thus washes out the 
soluble starch products and increases the durability by abstracting the 
matter upon which fungoid and insect enemies feed. His explanation is 
that he drowns the insects and their larvae which are already there, but 
the green growing bamboo is remarkably free from these. We have 
here another possible cause for irregular yields, and, to avoid it, it will be 
necessary to cut the bamboo at the season when its starch contents are 
at their lowest and to allow a period of seasoning to elapse before using. 
In ordinary circumstances this will be the case -without special precau¬ 
tions being taken, as it will generally be cut after the close of the monsoon 
and several months of good seasoning weather will intervene before it 
reaches the mills. But it should not be cut too soon after the monsoon 
or before the young culms have attained their full growth, and in dis¬ 
tricts where the north-east monsoon prevails it will probably be found 
advisable to defer cutting until several weeks after it has ceased. Cut 
at the proper time and with a sufficient period of seasoning, the water 
extract is reduced to a fairly stable average of from 10 to 13 per cent, in 
one year old and 7 to 10 per cent, in older culms. 
16. The matter of the young growing culms may here be disposed of. 
The experiments of the late Thos. Routledge, about 35 years ago, were 
made with these. The experience now available of the treatment of 
lignified materials was not then at his disposal. He had therefore, per¬ 
force, to use methods and plant suitable only for pecto-celluloses, and 
therefore turned naturally to bamboo in its immature and unlignified 
state. But the young shoots are, at this stage, protected by hard, closely 
clinging hairy siliceous sheaths springing from each node and enveloping 
the whole internode. He succeeded in proving the usefulness of the body 
of the culm, but the sheaths proved an insuperable difficulty. They could 
not be detached except by slow and expensive hand labour and, if left on, 
they were quite incapable of reduction. They are so still, notwithstand¬ 
ing improved methods of treatment. With the sprouting of branches as 
the culm approaches maturity (their purpose being by then accom¬ 
plished), they split away from the stem, wither and fall off. As the mature 
culm can now be dealt with, it is not necessary to interfere with the grow¬ 
ing stem, and, indeed, to do so would be the most effective means of in- 
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