346 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



light colored beeswax in constantly increasing amounts. A 

 similar development in apiculture has taken place in Porto 

 Rico, where the industry began in 1900 and increased to such 

 an extent that the exportation of beeswax was 18,000 pounds 

 in 1914, while honey was exported to the value of $70,000. 



SHELLAC 



Shellac is a resinous secretion of scale insects (Tachardia 

 lacca and related species), and is formed as a continuous in- 

 crustation on twigs infested with these insects. The material 

 comes into commerce under a number of trade names. The 

 term stick-lac is used in referring to the incrusted twigs re- 

 moved from the tree without disturbing the incrustation of lac. 

 Seed-lac is the term used for the granular lac scraped off from 

 the twigs, while the term shellac is reserved for the pure lac 

 melted and poured out on a cool surface in sheets. 



The best lac is obtained from lac insects when living on 

 Schleichera trijuga or on Butea frondosa. The latter tree is 

 so familiarly known in this connection that in India it is called 

 the lac tree. 



The demand for lac is rapidly increasing. India produces 

 about 15,000 tons annually, of which the United States uses 

 about 6,000 tons. Shellac is used for a multitude of pur- 

 poses, including electric insulation, gramophone records, seal- 

 ing wax, polish for wood and metal, stiffening for hats, litho- 

 graphic ink, in connection with the manufacture of painted 

 pottery, and in innumerable other ways, especially in India. 

 The industry is still largely in the hands of the natives of 

 India and rights are sold to collect lac in government forests. 

 The lac trees mentioned above are not the only ones upon 

 which lac insects live. There is, in fact, a great variety of 

 other trees upon which lac insects may produce a good quality 

 of lac. The Department of Agriculture of India now gives 

 instruction in the cultivation of lac, including the planting of 



