50 
Irtdian Forest Recordfi. 
[VoL. I. 
it has to pay in the shape of extraction of sap, and constant lopping of 
small branches, does not seem to be much injuriously affected. Most of 
the lac-bearing trees are useless for timber, but they are nevertheless 
very huge, being 6 to 8 feet in girth with a splendid leaf canopy. There 
are forests in the Hyderabad District which have been yielding large 
supplies of lac for the past twenty-eight years and more without any 
apparent injury to them.’ 
In the Punjab the lac insect is universally distributed and there is 
3 Punjab Scarcely a district which does not contain sam- 
ples. It is cultivated to a small extent in the 
Guzerat District, and apparently more extensively in Amballa, Jullun- 
dur, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, and part of the Kanjra District. The chief 
trees it affects are Ficus religiosa, Butea frondosa, Zizyphus jujuba, and 
Acacia arabica, also species of Ficus. 
The product is collected as stick-lac twice a year, in April-May and 
October-November. The lac-bearing DAUgs are cut off before the larvae 
swarm and dried, and the lac is then scraped off and packed in gunny 
bags for export. In this state it is generally impure, being mixed with 
dirt, scrapings of bark and wood, etc. 
Private owners of land on which suitable trees grow lease them for 
the cultivation of lac. Lac collected in the Punjab appears to find its 
way to Hoshiarpur and Amritsar whence portions go to Mirzapur and a 
httle to Multan. The quantity imported annually into Hoshiarpur is 
said to be 3,000 to 4,000 maunds. Punjab lac is said to have the repu- 
tation of being of inferior quality. 
The Zizyphus jujuba lac is the commonest. It is much produced in 
the Jhang and other districts where tracts of waste land are covered with 
wild Zizyphus jujuba plants. 
Mr. W. Coldstream, I.C.S., has some interesting notes on lac in the 
Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur Districts in the Indian Forester (Vol. VI, 
pages 218, 219) 
“The District of Hoshiapurisa submontane one. Lac is produced 
in all parts of it, at least in the plains and in the valleys between the hills, 
in the latter of which it is most abundant. There are two seasons for 
production, February to April and .July or August. The crops are collect- 
ed in June and October or November. The same tree is said not to pro- 
duce two crops in the same year. The autumn or October crop is con 
sidered the more valuable of the two.” “ The artificial propagation of lac, 
Mr. Coldstream wrote,” seems to be understood by very few persons, but 
