40 
Indian Forest Records. 
[ VoL. 1. 
The local inhabitants are authorized to collect the lac for Govern- 
ment and are paid at the rate of 2 annas per seer of 2 lbs. of collected 
lac. This is then sold at 8 annas per seer. The royalty collected on the 
lac averages about R20 per annimi. The trees are not lopped in the 
collection, but the branches merely bent over and lac broken off the 
twigs which are then released — a most deplorable method of procedure. 
No special steps are being taken to increase the yearly amount of 
lac obtainable from the forests of the Division. Attention to the culti- 
vation of Ougeinia dalbergioides and to improved methods of collection 
would doubtless result in better returns from this Division. 
Chota Nagpur and the Santhal Parganas are the chief lac-pro- 
ducing areas in Bengal. The Conservator 
7. Bengal. . ® , . . , ° 
writes that it is useless attemptmg to estimate 
areas of reserved and protected forests in which lac is grown. Trees of 
suitable kinds in accessible parts are used when the lac cultivators 
outside the forest have not sufficient trees outside the reserved and pro- 
tected areas. 
The lac-growing divisions are the Santhal Parganas, and Palamau, 
Hazaribagh, and Singbhum in Chota Nagpur. 
The trees used are Schleichera trijuga, Butea frondosa. Ficus rehgiosa, 
Zizyphus jujuba. Ficus Cunia, Butea scandens and Spatholobus 
Roxburghii. The Butea frondosa, on account of its abundance, is 
most commonly used, whilst the Schleichera trijuga [is the only other 
tree employed to any extent. 
No steps are being taken in Bengal to improve or extend lac cultiva- 
tion. The right to grow lac on individual trees or in areas is leased 
when lessees come forward. Past departmental experiments have 
been unsatisfactory. This is so ! But the reason in several notable 
instances, such as the introduction of brood-lac from unsuitable localities 
into Darjiling and the fiasco attending the Palamau experiments made 
about 1894-96, has been due to the fact that the method of culture of 
the insect was entirely misunderstood and no efforts were made to study 
its life history. The attempts made, as in so many other cases in India, 
were foredoomed to failure. 
The revenue from leases of trees and areas and from royalty on lac 
has been— 1902-03, R91 ; 1903-04, R226 ; 1904-05, R674. 
The Conservator states that generally in Bengal, with the excep- 
tion of the Santhal Parganas, where most of the protected forests are 
