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

Machining properties of wood are highly
important in determining their suitability
for prospective uses. Different woods vary
in machining properties as influenced by
their density, fibre structure, chemical and
mineral contents and many other
characteristics. As machining is involved in all
common woodworking operations, a knowledge
of the machinability of different woods
is helpful in selection of a particular species
for a particular use. The importance
of this information lies in marketing of conversion for The minor species occur gregariously
along with the commercial species in the
natural forests of the country. Due to
ignorance of the characteristics and machining
properties of these species, they are either
abandoned at the remote site in the forests
or used as fuel wood. Since the supply of
major commercial species of wood has
dwindled to a great extent, it is imperative to
introduce and bring these minor and new

Rattans are spiny climbing plants
belonging to the Lepidocaryoid Major Group
of the Palm Family (Moore 1973). In the
Malay Peninsula 9 genera occur : Calamus,
Daemonorops,korthalsia Plectocomia,
Plectocomiopsis, myrialepis Calospatha,

Baruna (Crataeva religiosa, Forst) is
a fast growing tropical hardwood species
found to grow sporadically in Bangladesh
near river banks and in swampy lands. The
wood is softer than many other indigenous
species with a yellowish-white to brown
colour. The wood has been reported to be a
good timber for turnery works and, as such,
used for making toys, cups, saucers and many
other small articles (Chowdhury and Ghosh
1958). But uptil now it is not utilised as an
industrial raw material in the country except
for fuel wood. A fast growing species as
it is, raising of Baruna plantations in
swamp forests as well as its possible uses
in wood-based industries of the country
was discussed in more than one meeting of
the ‘Research Consultative Committee’ held
in the Forest Research Institute, Chittagong.
In this context, the present research works
have been conducted in the Institute to study

Bamboo is an important raw material
in our villages for a wide range of uses.
Bamboo is grown in small groves in village
homesteads. For the last few years a disease
of village grown bamboos has caused
substantial damage. Rahman (1978) described
some aspects of the symptoms and isolated
Coniothyrium fuckelii as the dominant
associated fungus. Pathogenicity tests with C.
fuckelii on Bambusa balcooa at Rajshahi
in 1979 did not yield any infection (Rahman,
unpublished data). Review of literature
on C. fuckelii did not reveal any report
that the fungus was a pathogen. Isolation
of other fungi was inconclusive (Rahman,
1978), but the scattered distribution of

Copper salts, borax and boric acid
individually provide good to excellent
protection to wood against fungal and insect
attack. A new formulation has been
developed at the Forest Research Institute,
Chittagong, Bangladesh with borax, boric
acid and copper sulphate (BBC) in
mixture. Immediate precipitation of copper
borate occurs when borax is added to a
clear solution of copper sulphate and boric
acid in mixture. The precipitate dissolves
in ammonium hydroxide and an intense
blue solution is obtained. On vaporization
of ammonia from the solution copper
borate is reprecipitated.