28 
Indian Forest Records. 
[ VoL. I. 
as a means of communication from the lac to the branches and leaf 
petioles, thus saving many insects who would otherwise never live to 
reach the sappy branches. Owing to the crookedness and irregularity 
of the external surface of the lac incrustation and to the small size of 
the larvae some such help is absolutely essential if a preponderance 
of the brood are to reach a position where they can obtain food and 
thus live. The young larvae on swarming out of the lac cells spread 
by this means from the small lac incrusted twigs of the trees on to 
the unaffected ones. It is also of importance to lie the brood lac to the 
upper and middle branches of the tree, as by this arrangement many of 
the lower branches become covered with insects which are shaken or 
fall from above ; if the lac is attached to the lower branches these insects 
will fall to the ground and be lost. 
The native methods of cultivation and collection are extremely 
careless and slovenly, and result in injury to the crop and depreciation 
in the quality of the lac obtained. Formerly the lac-dye, the liquid 
with which the body of the female becomes filled at the time the eggs 
begin to form in the ovary, had a certain commercial importance. 
Consequently it was necessary to collect the lac at a period consider- 
ably before the larvae swarmed. This is the origin of the native custom 
of collecting the product before the insects issue. The dye has now but 
little commercial value ; still the custom remains, and it has become a 
matter of considerable controversy as to whether it would not now be 
better and cheaper to collect the lac after the larvae have swarmed. 
The cultivation and propagation of the insect on scientific lines has 
been receiving considerable attention from Mr. A. Lowrie, Deputy 
Conservator of Forests, in the Raipur Division, and the following note 
which was forwarded to me by Mr. G. S. Hart, Conservator of Forests, 
Western Circle, epitonaises the best methods at present in force in that 
locality: 
‘ ‘ The mass of the lac is collected, almost invariably, before swarm- 
ing takes place ; but in order to explain the reasons for this it will be 
necessary to give a brief outline of the method of cultivation adopted 
and to note the species on which this cultivation is principally carried 
out. The species are ‘ Kusum ’ [Schleichera trijuga), ‘ Palas ’’(Butea 
frondosa), ‘ Khair ’ {Acacia Catechu), ‘ dhobin ’ {Dalbergia paniculata) 
and ‘Ber’ (Z zyphus jufuba), while lac has also been noticed on ‘ Ficus 
mfectoria,’ where this tree is epithitic on ‘ Kusum ’ under lac cultiva- 
tion. Of these species the lac produced on the Schleichera trijuga 
