222 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1887. 
w ith a grummet of jute, which it will be necessary 
to keep moist with petroleum. November is the time 
to get your stock lac, but arrangements should have 
been srade earlier in the season; say August. The 
lac must be soft and pliable, otherwise the insect 
will be dried up in the cells and useless. About half 
a maund, or fourty pounds, will be found sufficient 
for one acre, and though the cost for fresh material 
may amount to a rupee a seer (2 lb.), it is well 
worth the expense, for once stocked you are inde- 
pendent. The best method of conveying the lac to 
the factory is in baskets well lined with fresh plan- 
tain leaves, and as very little motion causes the insect 
to leave the cells, the packing should be torn in 
strips and wound in and about the branches of the 
dhal, while if any appear on the baskets the latter 
should be broken up and secured to the limbs of the 
tree, into the forks of which lumps of lac must be 
stuck until a a uniform distribution over the whole 
plantation has been accomplished. Almost daily the 
increase of the cell formation can be noted ; first 
a streak of crimson draws out from the pieces of lac, 
which, if inspected with a magnifying glass, will be found 
to be a column of insects; they gradually deepen 
in colour and increase in size, each forms a cell and 
rapidly begins to exude the tough horny substance, 
until by the end of the rains it becomes necessary in 
many cases to support the branches weighed down by 
the incrustation. If the insect has been left undis- 
turbed and the shade properly attended to, three years 
from the commencement of operations and one from 
the introduction of the insect, each tree will yield 
an average of eight pounds of lac, which when freed 
from extraneous matters, such as twigs and leaves, 
and the dye washed out, will give six pounds per 
bush of clean seed lac, the present price of which in 
the London market at 40a'. per cwt. gives £144 per 
acre, less charges such as initial cost upkeep, freight, 
etc. ; but if care is taken to leave sufficient nu- 
cleous on the branches this sum may be looked for 
annually without the expense of re-stocking. In pre- 
paring lac for the market it is pounded up small 
and then washed in plastered wooden tanks, about 
the size of two tea-chests thrown into one ; while 
rubbing and mascerating the lac a few pinches of 
unslacked lime thrown into the water will greatly 
help the precipitation of the dye. After it has been 
washed thoroughly clean, it should be dried under 
shade, packed in chests of 56 or 112 pounds and 
sent direct to London ; and as there is a growing pre- 
ference among dealers and manufacturers for seed 
lac in lieu of shell lac, the expense of converting 
the former into the latter need not be attempted. 
Unfortunately lac dye is now a drug in the home 
market, having been ousted by the cheap aniline pre- 
parations, but in these whirligig days of constant 
commercial revolution, as there is no telling 
but what a demand for it may again spring up, 
I mention the method of preparation: — When the 
seed lac has been removed from the tank all scum 
should be carefully taken off and the dye allowed 
to settle for twenty-four hours ; the water may then 
be drawn off and the sediment put into trays of about 
two inches deep, two feet long and eighteen inches 
in breadth, the sides and ends having slots cut down 
to the bottom every three inches. As the dye dries 
it must be lightly pressed down and divided by strings 
drawn through the slots, thus portioning the dye 
into cakes of three inches square by one deep. 
Under no account must metal come in contact with 
lac during the process of manufacture. Under present 
circumstances the dye may be sent to Calcutta and 
put up without reserve, as native dyers still make 
use of it ; also a trade may be opened in it with 
Munnipoor and the hills, and eventually Burmah, 
but these details must be left to the consideration 
of the investor. 
Indigo. — The neglect of this plant by Assam planters 
can only be accounted for the blind devotion to 
the one object with which they came to the pro- 
vince, the higher bhecl land and drainable swamps 
between the teelahs possessing, as they do, a soil 
admirably adapted lor the growth of the plant, while 
the heavy dew that falls up to the end of February 
would bring it to maturity by the middle of May. 
The abundant water supply avilable from the numer- 
ous springs and streams, moreover, would sup- 
ply artificial irrigation — should such be deemed 
advisable — so that the plant might be cut and manu- 
facture finished ere the regular rains set in about 
mid-June. 
Arrowroot, Topioca and Sago. — Although these three 
are indigenous, their commercial value is so small 
that, though a patch of the two former may be kept 
for household consumption, and seedlings of the latttr 
may be scattered about the unused portions of the 
grant, unless they can be placed in a manufactured 
state, free on board, at about a penny per pound, it would 
not pay to devote any further atteution to their pre- 
paration. Under present circumstances they can be 
had cheaper as importations from London, and under- 
taking the preparation of them to supply any local 
demand, inexpensive as such preparation is, must be 
determined by close calculation as to whether " the 
game is worth the candle. " For exportation they 
must be turned out by the ton, small quantities 
will not pay, any more than would match-making 
by the box. 
Ginger and Turmeric. — Both of these tubers, if well 
cultivated, highly manured and treated with care in 
the preparation for market, can be growu at consider- 
able profit. Each is reared iu a desultory manner in 
almost every village, but so little care is bestowed 
upon the culture aud drying that the minimum 
price is obtained in the local bazaars, aud wholesale 
dealers would hardly take notice of them. Generally 
speaking, the roots when taken up receive but a super- 
ficial washing, are then smeared with fresh cowdung 
and hung in baskets or spread on trays among the 
rafters of the native huts, the ever-ascending smoke 
doing the rest. The result is that the out-turn presents 
a most uninviting aspect, dirty, shrivelled, and, 
despite the almost constaut smoke, the dried tubers 
are invariably riddled with the bamb:>o-borer insect. 
If on being dug out the tubers of ginger are thoroughly 
well scrubbed in water with a hard bru-ih until every 
earthy particle is removed and then stpepad for a 
night in a pretty strong solution of lime witer (one 
ounce of unslacked lime to the gallon), theu well rinsed 
in clean water and dried slowly in a brick oven at a 
temperature of 140° to 160"'. it will command a price 
closely approximating the best Jamaica ginger ; this 
was ascertained some twenty years ago in the case of 
some samples so treated on one of the Sylhet planta- 
tions. Though ginger may be bad, as stock, from almost 
any village, the best is procurable from the bazaars 
frequented by the hill tribes under the foot of the 
hills. As ginger is a bulky article it mi 0 'ht be worth 
while to consider the advisability of extracting the 
essence and confining dealings iu it to that. 
Turmeric may be treated in the same manner, 
om'tting the bleaching by lime water, and sent to 
the best market ruling prices indicate. There is 
another tuber that might be cultivated with great 
advantage and profit, but having regard to the 
climate in which it is found I doubt very much 
whether it could be raised in the plains of Assam. 
I allude to the Salep rriisree brought round bv the 
Afghan fruit pedlars every cold weather. Dried to 
n,n almost adamantine consistency in its journey from 
Balk, that retailed by the traders may ue presumed 
to have lost its vitality a^ the extreme difficulty of 
procuring anything direct from Afghanistan precludes 
all hope of getting it thence ; but, under the name 
of "little men's bread," it is known to the Badaghurs 
of the Neilgherries and may be procured either from 
the Botanical Gardens at Ootacamund or from planters 
on that plateau. It is best germinated in damp 
flannel until the eyes begin to protrude, when 
it may be planted in well earthed ridges, kept moder- 
ately moist, and shaded until the leaves appear ; it. 
is fit for lifting in a twelvemonth. Though unknown 
in Europe and almost entirely so to anv of the medical 
profession who have not served in the Exst, it possesses 
most wonderful vivifying properties, and has been 
famous throughout Persia for ages as a stimulative 
