1.Bamboo.—

The energy and persistence with which Mr. Routledge has advocated the claims of bamboo as a paper material have attracted much attention in India. The nature of the problem which has to be solved has been discussed in previous Kew Reports (1877, pp. 35, 36, and 1878, pp. 42 to 44), and need not be further dwelt upon. It is now generally conceded by those interested in the matter that the young bamboo shoots must be cropped so as not to impair the vitality of the clumps. Dr. King, Superintendent of the Royal Botanical Garden, Calcutta, remarks that the plan of taking a few shoots annually from each clump is the principle on which bamboos have been cut in India from time immemorial.

That without such caution the bamboo cannot be cut indefinitely, even in countries where it is merely used for local purposes, is shown by the fact that in the Government forests in India it has been found necessary to give the bamboos rest. For example, Dr. Brandis, Inspec-tor-General of Forests, states in his recent report that "in some forest tracts of the Damoh district the page 33 growth of the bamboo had been so greatly restored by four years protection against cutting that it was lately found possible, subject to certain restrictions, to reopen these blocks for the cutting of bamboos. Dr. King lays down very clearly the questions which now remain to be settled. They are whether commercial success can be obtained (1), by forming plantations of bamboos for the collection of succulent shoots; (2), by collecting the immature shoots of wild bamboos in the forests and carrying them to a paper factory; or (3), by fitting up a floating paper stock mill and moving it about on rivers by the banks of which bamboos naturally abound."