The Florida agriculturist., 1906-03-07

beauty, strength with grace.
Its culture is simplicity itself. In
the month of July a green pole is
buried about two feet deep. Early
the following spring it sprouts from
the joints, like sugar-cane. 1t shoots
up with wonderful rapidity from thirty
to sixty feet. 1t has been known to
grow two feet in single day. In
four or five months it is ready to
cut. The following spring it will
sprOut again from the roots. 1t might
well be named Goliah-grass. The Chi
nese neither fertilize, irrigate nor hoe
it. No wonder it is cheap.
But what is all this to the Ameri-
can farmer? Much every way. He
is the most enterprising man of his
class in the world. He objects to
nothing because it is new. will it
pay? is the first question he wants
answered. Once in a while man is
found who is farming for his health
but he is too rare specimen to need
special attention except by his physi-
clan. Journalism does not count him
VIII bamboo-growing in America
pay?
why not? 1t requires no culti-
vatlOn worth mentioning. 1t occupies
little land, and that which is other
wise unproductive mountain-sides,
rocky soil, the despair of the cultiva-
tor, is where it fourishes AS to
climate the southern half of the
United States is in the latitude where
it abounds in China. There seems
to be no good reason why it should
not grow as easily in Florida as in
Fukien, as well in the valley of the
Mississippi as in the great Yangtse
basin.
What is the use of raising what
nobody in America uses?" l hear a
hard-headed old king of the soil ask
Before the cotton-gin was invented
on-growing did not pay. Amer
leans did not eat much sugar when it
was all in the form of maple-syrup.
Cheap sugar makes its own demand.
SO with a number of articles now in
common use. A generation ago they
were luxuries, and used by a few.
The discovery or invention of cheap
method of production has created the
market. Witness the spread of kero-
sene IN less than two generations
Certainly any material that is capa-
Bile OF such variety of uses with the
least labor soon makes for itself a
market in America. Already bam-
boo br1c-a-braC manufactured in Japan
brings very high prices in America.
Let the raw materials be grown in
America. Give Yankee ingenuity a
chance to make it supply the insat-
liable appetite of the American public
for the new, the useful, and the orna-
mental; the difficulty soon would be
not with the limited demand, but the
insufficient supply.
How get a start in growing it?
1t is reported that the Agricultural
Department at Washington had a
commission in the Far East a year
or two ago looking for new and use
full plants and ideas. 1t is not strange
that these specialists saw that there
was for the bamboo possible Amer
lean future. 1t is said they have
taking specimans home with them
and that the department is expert
menting with them, with a view to
the bamboo into its new
environment Any interested reader
can no doubt find out what has been
the success of the experiment so far
by writing to the Department. A
score of letters of enquiry would
awaken the interest in the subject if it
has gone to sleep. The enterprising
branch station in the Philippines
could supply without limit the home
demand for seed-plants and informa-