The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-01-11
Tie USEFUL BAMBOO.
Fke Chlnrse Utilize the Plant In a Great
Variety of Ways.

Fhe ChInHse Utilize the Plant In q Great
Variety of Ways.
just 90 and look at your long,
slender bamboo fishing pole and try
to fancy what a house would look
like built of that sort of thing. Yet
when a Chinanhan wishes to build a
house he doesn't hire an architect
gray ~ plumbers and decorators.
He just merely goes and plants a few
bamboo roots. Then hegoes on quiet
Iy attending to his business and lets
them grow. In a few months he has
n fine forest of bamboo from 40 to SO
feet high and with stalks ranging
from half an inch to IS inches in di-
! Ametor. He digs a trench the shape
and size lie wishes his house and
proceeds to cut the trees he thinks
the proper size and sets them up III
his trench. which he then fills up
With the slenderer stalks he makes
rafters and shingles it with bamboo
leaves. The windows are delicate
lattice work of bamboo, and the fur
nituro is of slender bamboo. bent
and CURED ana plated. His water
bucket is a good big stalk sawed off
Just below the joint and made az
deep as he needs above it,
For Il bottle he takes a slender
piece and treats it in the same way.
IL in the confusion of building he
1nislays his knife, he just takes a
good sharp edge Of bamboo and does
just as well for everything, except
cutting bamboo, as if il We're Sheffield
steel. While lie is building he keeps
off the pangs of hunger by cutting
the little tender shoots just as they
peep from the ground and cooking
them like asparagus. OF course we
ali know how dangerous il is to move
at once into a new house, it il
likely to be damp, and so Mr.. SIN
Foo catches a severe cold. All he
does is to run out to his bamboo
thickct, gather a few leaves, boil
them and drink the tea. In a day
or 50 he is al right and ready to en-
Joy Tho delicious dinner Mrs. Sin Eco
has prepared in honor of the roof
raising.' She has delicate boiled
bamboo shoots, bamboo grains baked
in a bamboo joint with honey and
bamboo shoots candied with sugar.
| can't tell you ell they mako Of
bamboo. Masts and cordago, kites,
fences, bridges. fans, pipes for car.
rying water over the ricofields, the
(irest Of paper and in fact nearly
everything they use. The strangost
Of all uses is to bore gas and oil wells
with it. They begin by twirling q
hollow bamboo pole where they wish
to sink tho well This gradually
works its way. into the ground.
When sunk to its full length, they
fastcn another to tho end of it and
keep on twirling. This operation
they keep up until thcy strike gas
or oil, which comes gushing up
through the poles. They $ them
also for bringing brine TO the surface
from the salt wells. And then Just
think how much cleaner, protticr
and moroHracoful it is than our ugly
iron work. Apropos of this, l re-
member an incident Of the dainty
little japanese folk who took part in
Tue Columbian exposition recently.
In the space allotted for their village
was one of our ordinary iron water
taps. It never occurs to us to notice
how hidcous they are, but the Japa.
noso looked at it, shuddercl as one
man andat oncosot about hiding the
hateful object with clean, shining
bamboo.-Nashington Star.