TACHARDIA 



LACCA 



Lac 



Capricious Crop. 



THE LAC INSECT 



Extreme 

 Fluctuations. 



Climatic 

 Influences. 



Babul. 



Divergent 

 Climates. 



Cost. 



Auxiliary to 

 Tea. 



crop is most capricious both in yield and price. One year it may be highly 

 profitable, the very next sold on so narrow a margin that no inducement 

 exists for extension. In support of this statement, witness the fact that 

 in 1902-3 the exports of shell-lac were 195,000 cwt., valued at 15| million 

 rupees (1,048,991), while next year, 1903-4, they were only 178,000 cwt. 

 but were valued at over 21 million rupees (1,456,067). That is to say, 

 while there were 17,290 cwt. less exported, the sum realised was nearly 

 half a million pounds sterling more in 1903-4 than in 1902-3. And the 

 fluctuation might just as likely have been toward a loss as a gain of half 

 a million in the sum realised. No other item of Indian trade manifests 

 anything like such extreme fluctuations in price as lac, and it can, there- 

 fore, be no matter for surprise that the supply should correspondingly 

 fluctuate. 



LOCALITIES OF SUPPLY AND COST OF PRODUCTION. Lac is 

 met with practically throughout the warm tropical areas of the whole of 

 India, but most abundantly in the Central Provinces, Bengal, Assam and 

 Burma. In Sind and Gujarat, as already stated, the babul tree (Acacia 

 araMca) may be said to be that on which it is met with most abundantly. 

 In Bengal, where both the babul tree and the lac insect are plentiful, it is 

 extremely rare to find lac on that tree. But, as already suggested, the 

 question naturally arises, is the babul- feeding insect of Sind the same species 

 as the pa/as-feeding one of Bengal and the Central Provinces ? The 

 climates and soils of Sind and Bengal are about as different as it is possible 

 to imagine, although both are tropical. The one is extremely dry, the 

 other extremely moist, and that alone may account for the behaviour of 

 the insect. 



Cost of Production. Mukerji (Handbook Ind. Agri., 1901, 496) gives 

 the following calculation of expenditure based on an actual experiment 

 conducted by an Assam planter : 



Rs. 

 Rent at Rs. 3 per acre for 80 acres . . . . . . . . 240 



Hoeing or cutting jungle between trees . . . . . . . . 320 



Upkeep of necessary buildings . . . . . . . . . . 100 



Cutting branches and putting in seed . . . . . . . . 340 



Rs. 1,000 



Manufacturing charges at 5 per cent. . . . . . . . . 3,500 



Packing and dispatching at 2 per cent. . . . . . . 1,750 



Calcutta charges for forwarding and river freight, at 2J per cent. 1,750 



London charges for sea freight, Dock and Broker's charges . . 3,000 



Proceeds of Sales, 1,750 at 

 Deduct discount to buyers 



Total 



Total . 



Deduct Expenditure 



Balance of profit 



Rs. 11,000 



.. 26,250 

 656 



Rs. 25,594 

 .. 11,000 



Rs. 14,594 



" Lac worked in connection with tea, etc., the amounts for European 

 and Native supervision and upkeep of coolie lines, etc., may be added 

 proportionately according to circumstances. The planter referred to, how- 

 ever, lost nearly his whole crop next year from the attacks of a night moth.'" 



1058 



