The native population have employed the fibre for ages, as it is very durable and not attacked by ants. Its local application is solely for cordage purposes, for which it is well adapted, as the rough-edged fibres twist into a very firm rope, which is so light as to float on water. A considerable trade is done in it with the interior. In Europe, this fibre is employed almost exclusively in brush making. Denmark and Germany now have a large trade in the article; but the bulk of it comes to this country. In N. America, it is little used. The total foreign consumption is estimated at about 5000 tons a year. The London market value fluctuates between 151. and 251. a ton.
The term " Para Piassava" is commercially applied to the fibre yielded by another palm (see Leopoldinia Piassaba).
Bambusa ; gigantic grass, 70-80 ft. This most useful genus flourishes throughout the tropics of both hemispheres, growing luxuriantly iu moist places, while some of its varieties prefer to climb the high lands. As a possible source of " stock " for paper making, it has attracted much attention, and been made the subject of several experiments. The method of planting it, most commonly adopted by the natives of India, is by shoots, or the lower part of the halm, with a portion of the rhizome, set out during the rains ; but heavy and constant rain for some time afterwards is essential. In Algeria, propagation by stem cuttings is found to succeed admirably. Cultivatiou from seed is, perhaps, the most certain plan ; but it is open to the serious disadvantage that the plant then requires 10-15 years to attain a growth sufficient to admit of cropping. The plant will not grow in poor or waste soils, but prefers the rich land on the banks of streams. Abundance of moisture, snpplied either naturally or by irrigation, is absolutely issen tin'. Thousands of acres of wild bamboo jungle exist in the tropics, but very little of this is available for the purposes of the paper manufacturer, as experience has shown that shoots of the year are the only ones which can be used. This fact, coupled with the equally important one that an abundance of bamboo is essential to the very existence of the native races of the E. Indies, renders it certain that, for industrial undertakings, the plant would have to be systematically cultivated. It remains to bo proved whether the cost of such cultivation, together with that entailed in the preparation of the product, might not be much better expended upon a plant ivhich would yield fibres fit for textile manufactures in the first place, and equally or more valuable for paper when in the form of rags.
Estimates as to the available annual product of young shoots vary considerably. Thomas Routledge, of Claxheugh, the great advocate for the culture of bamboo as a paper-making material, would divide an acre into 12 beds, each 96 ft. by 26 ft., crossed by 12 paths 96 ft. by 8 ft. 8 in., and one intersecting road, 208 ft. by 16 ft., thus leaving a planting space of 2496 ft., or 29,952 ft. in the 12 beds ; placing the stems 2 ft. apart would give 7488 stems, which, grown to a height of 12 ft., are estimated to weigh 12 lb. each, thus giving 40 tons of green stems per acre. These lose 75 per cent. by drying = 10 tons, producing 60 per cent., or 6 tons of " paper-stock." On the other hand, by present methods of cultivation, the plants are never set at less than 5 ft. to 8-10 ft. apart, though these limits might be reduced by the aid of manure and irrigation. Also, only a portion, say 50-75 per cent., of the shoots may be removed from each stool, or the parent plant will die. At the and of 15-30 years, the plants flower and die, when re-stocking would be necessary. Robert Thomson, Superintendent of the Jamaica Botanic Gardens, believes that bamboo plantations there will yield annually 5-10 tons (dry) of young shoots. The young shoots must not he cut close to the ground, but a few nodes above it; foliage starts from the nodes which are left, and maintains the action of the roots. In Jamaica, three crops have been taken in two years ; and some bamboos deprived of every shoot were luxuriant again in fur years. After heavy rain, the young shoots spring from the ground to a height of 25 ft. in about 5 weeks.
The bamboo has established its reputation as affording an excellent paper material, and thousands of tons of it have bean consumed in America and this country, the supplies having been drawn from the W. Indies. Efforts have been made in Brazil to utilize the fibre for textiles, in mixtures with wool and silk. The expenses entailed for machinery, and for boiling the stems for 3 weeks in caustic soda solution, are surely not warranted by the result. Attention has been hitherto confined to the above-named species and to B. rulgario ; but B. Tulda, Denth•ocalamus giganteus, and D. strict uq, await investigation and trial.