BAMBOO 
19 
Then the merchant can use it to make yard-sticks, umbrellas, bar¬ 
rel-hoops, market baskets, and many other useful and ornamental ar¬ 
ticles. Everybody admires it because it grows so tall and has such 
delicate foliage and furnishes such pleasant shade in summer. 
There are several varieties of bamboo in Japan, but the kind in the 
picture is the most useful. The large sprouts come up in early spring 
and grow very rapidly. They attain a height of about fifteen feet be- 
A bamboo grove in Japan 
fore they have any branches on them. They are not very attractive 
until the long, willowy limbs appear, heavily loaded with long narrow, 
blade-like leaves. Then they become very beautiful. 
My) yard-fence is all made of bamboo except the posts, and all tlm 
inside walls of my house are bamboo, covered with a black mud on both 
sides. It is finished on one side by a yellow mud, resembling calci- 
mining; the other side is a brown sand-stone finish. Neither will 
stand water, and if one were to fall against the wall, he would likely 
break a hole in it. -W. G. Alexander . 
