344 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



trees, and performs the same operation, and so on. After four days 

 he returns to the first trees and makes this time new incisions 

 parallel to the others, and about two millimeters lower, then to 

 the others in the same way, scraping out the exudations from the 

 new series as he did in the first instance. As this operation is 

 repeated with the same interval some fifteen or twenty times, it 

 will be seen that the work of the lac-tapster occupies not less than 

 60 to 80, and often 100 days before it is finished. If the tree is 

 to be sacrificed to the lac-extraction, then he makes incisions in 

 all parts of the tree not yet cut, even the branches, but at greater 

 distances. If, however, it is to be kept for further yield, and 

 especially for wax-extraction, the treatment is more careful, and 

 the incisions more sparing. In the first case, where the tree is 

 made to yield its utmost, it is customary to cut down the branches 

 after the leaves have fallen, and to bind the thicker parts together 

 in fagots of one meter length, and to put them with the tops 

 in warm water. The parts of the branches which protrude out 

 of the water are then scratched, the lac extracted, the fagots are 

 turned and the process repeated on the other side. The sap can 

 be made to circulate anew, not only in water but by the heat of 

 fire. But the lac so extracted, Se-shime, or Shime-urushi, is con- 

 sidered the poorest of its kind, and is used only in groundwork. 

 The best Ki-urushi comes from the lower part of the tree and 

 flows best during the hottest part of the year. It is of an even, 

 viscid constituency and a tan-brown colour. The poorer qualities 

 are generally darker, and not homogeneous, somewhat granulated 

 and almost jelly-like in thickness. These are obtained from the 

 branches and higher parts of the trunk. 



One lac tree yields on the average under exhaustive treatment, 

 to which the tree of course is sacrificed, only 1*5 to 3 go, or 53*50 

 ccm. of raw lac, corresponding to about 27 to 54 grammes, as its 

 specific gravity is a little above that of water.^ 



According to Dallas,^ in 1874 the lac yield of Okitama-ken 

 (district of Yonezawa in Uzen), one of the principal districts of 

 lac-culture, was 3,608 kin, or Japanese pounds (a 592*593 gr.) = 2,i65 

 kilogrammes. Besides this there was manufactured from the fat 

 of the fruit 62,598 kin = 37,559 kilogrammes of R6-soku or candles. 

 If the average yield be 40 grammes raw lac per tree, 60,140 trees 

 must be sacrificed to gain these 2,165 kilogrammes. 



Ki-urushi is always packed in Taru (tubs) of the size and form 

 of our common wooden pails. They are made of Sugi (Cryp- 

 tomeria japoncia)^ bound with bamboo hoops and covered with a 



^ W. Williams, in "The Middle Kingdom," says that in China, each 1,000 

 trees are supposed to yield an average of only 20 lbs. of lac. This makes (one 

 pound avoirdupois=453"6 grammes) in all 9,072 grammes, or only nine grammes 

 per tree. 



2 "Notes collected in the Okitama-ken." Trans. As. Soc. of Japan, 1875, 

 p. 118. 



