ON TME ECONOMIC USES OF BAMBOOS. 279 
authorities might with advantage take a leaf out of the 
Dutchmen’s book. 
I have not been able to obtain much information as regards 
the cost of planting bamboos in their own country for commercial 
purposes, nor as to the profits to be obtained. Of course there 
must in any case be a number of years, varying, according to 
Chinese authorities, from seven to ten, before the plants come to 
maturity, but once they have attained a size at which their canes 
may be cut for sale, the crop must bring in a goodly revenue. 
We are told that in the village of Lower Uchimamura, near 
Tokio, an enterprising individual has planted a plot of land of 
about two acres in extent, having a sandy, stony soil, so poor 
that hardly anything would grow on it, with the black bamboo, 
Phyllostachys nigra, with the result that he sells every year 
five hundred dollars’ worth of walking sticks and umbrella 
canes.* 
That the industry is a paying one is proved by the great care 
with which the best species are cultivated both in China and 
Japan. No people make more of their land than the Chinese 
and Japanese, and they would not waste thousands of acres upon 
an unprofitable crop. 
I am not aware that any very extensive plantations of bamboos, 
as a commercial speculation, have been attempted in Europe. 
But my information is lamentably far off from being up to date. 
The newest source at my disposal is twenty years old, being a 
“ Note on the Cultivation of the Bamboo andits Industrial Uses,” 
by M. A. Calvet, published by the French Department of Agri¬ 
culture and Trade, in 1878. 
He says, “The introduction of the bamboo into the South-West 
(of France) is due to M. Guillemin, the owner and director of the 
farming school at Tolou, near Gau, in the Lower Pyrenees; it 
dates from the year 1861. The first plants came from the garden 
of the Hamma, at Algiers. 
“ Since then, M. Garrigues, the assistant director of the 
farm, has extended the cultivation of the bamboo in the valley 
of the Neez, at the mouth of the valley of Ossau, with the 
greatest success. 
“ An area of four hectares, on a slope at a height of 350 
* Van tie Polder. 
