Bamboos play a very important role
in the rural economy of South and South-
East Asia. Probably the usefulness of
bamboo is nowhere as great as in Bangladesh.
What with the population explosion and
wholesale depletion of forest wealth during
the last decade or so, Bangladesh is suffering
from acute shortage of wood. Bamboos
from the village groves which used to be
the most important material for house
construction, scaffolding, ladders, mats, baskets, fencing, containers, tool-handles,
pipes, toys, musical instruments, furniture,
handicrafts and a host of other utilities
are in very short supply these days (Lessard
and Chounard in 1980). Bangladesh
once used to be very rich in bamboo
species. Karnaphuli Paper Mills was orginally
planned to produce 120 thousand tons of
paper a day with Muli bamboo (Melocana
baccifera) as the fibrous raw material.
However, it was found later that these

Teak has always been the principal
species in the plantation programmes of
Bangladesh. More than 70% of total plantation in the hill forests is composed
of Teak (Andersen 1969, Slavicky 1978,
White 1979).

Mangium (Acacia mangium willd) is a
promising fast-growing multipurpose species
of the family Leguminosae and subfamily
Mimosoidcac. It is indigenous to
northern Australia, Papua New Guinea
and eastern Indonesia. The best known
stands are found in Queensland, Australia,
where the temperature ranges from 12°c
to 34°C and about 4,400 mm and 700 mm
rainfall are received annually during the
rainy and dry seasons respectively.

A kraft mill, even by utilizing the best available technology,
cannot be made completely odour-free. However, there are several
sulphide-free and non-sulphur pulping methods. Among these, sodaanthraquinone
(AQ) pulping process seems to be promissing.

The most practised chemical to-day is the kraft process. 95% of the present production of chemical 74 Pulp yield can be increased by using polysulphide, H2S or AQ
in the cook. The first two are used exclusively in kfraft cooking, and
so the odour problem cannot be overcome. AQ on the other hand,
is also suitable in a sulphur-free cook which eliminates the odour
problem of the pulp mill. Soda-AQ pulping is more suitable with
hardwoods.

Pigeon pea grows as a perennial plant,
but is cultivated as an annual or biennial
crop. It is a much branching woody
shrub and grows to a height of four meters.
The branches spread upto two meters.
The flowering period varies from 65 to
200 days, the early selected cultivars generally
maturing in 120-130 days. Arhar is a tropical crop and most
adapted to drought conditions. Soil fertility
not being a limiting factor, it can be
grown on marginal to low fertility land
(Gowda and Kaul 1982). Due to the ageold
system of cultivation, less than a ton
of Arhar seeds per hectare is available
from about 3600 ha of land -under Arhar

Present seed use (11 kg for a nursery bed of 1.2 m x 12 m)
for kcora {Sonneratia apetala Buch.-Ham.) was found to be at least
55 times higher than the actual requirement for producing usable seedlings
in the Chittagong coastal area. No significant difference was
observed in respect of availablility of seedlings when pregerminated
and ungerminated seeds were sown. Seeds sown by broadcasting
showed significantly better performance than dibbling.

The importance of seasoning of timber has been discussed in the
context of Bangladesh conditions. Prevalent seasoning practices have
been described. The potential of wood seasoning in the country and
its expected economic benefits have also been dealt with.

Melocanna baccifera (Roxb.) Kurz locally
known as muli bans, is the predominant bamboo
species of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh at occurs
naturally in the forests of Chittagong, Chittagong
Hill Tracis, Sylhcl, Cox’s Bazar and northern part
of Mymcnsing. According to Gamble (1896), the
muli bamboo is naturally distributed throughout
Eastern Bengal and Burma from Garo and Khasia
Hill to Chittagong and Aracan, and again in
Tcnasscrim. McClure (1966) reported that the
natural home of this plant apparently is “in the Hill
Tracts of East Bengal”. The species occurs both as
undergrowth in many of the timber stands and as
pure bamboo vegetation over extensive areas
mainly on well drained slopes specially in the
forest openings. It constitutes 98% of bamboo
vegetation in Kassalong Reserve, 65% in
Rankhcon Reserve of Chittagong, Sylhcl and
northern part of Mymcnsing and more than 70%
of the total forest bamboo resource (Chowdhury
1984). It is more or less an evergreen species.
The clumps arc diffused and open producing
clums at varying interval in all directions due to
underground elongated (1-2 m) rhizome necks
developed from the ramiflying sympodial rhizome
system (Banik 1980). Il is interesting to note that
the natural habitat of this species is restricted to the
high rainfall hilly areas (250-600 cm per annum)
of the world. The species with net-like extensive
rhizome system might have been selected naturally
in the region for protecting the forest soil from
erosion. Besides this ccologic importance, muli
bamboo is the main raw material for rural housing