76 
Indian Forest Records. 
[ VoL. I. 
numbers of people find employment in the work connected with its pro- 
pagation, cultivation, collection, and manufacture into the various forms 
required in commerce. In the Aullage it is used either as a varnish or 
colour medium in the production of tables, bed posts, chairs, boxes, 
platters, etc., etc. The silver and copper smiths employ it in their trades, 
as do the manufacturers of shields, swords, etc., which are varnished 
over with lac. The material is employed in the manufacture of paint- 
ed pottery in Bengal, Gonda, Lucknow', Oudh, Peshawar and the Punjab. 
It is used by jewellers and also in the mamxfacture of the various classes 
of bangles by the lower classes. Lastly, in the large class of toys of every 
description made in India lac is extensively used for colouration pur- 
poses, whilst marbles, pens, sealing-w'ax, ink bottles, imitation fruit, 
and flowers are entirely made of it. 
The following appeared in a recent number of the Indian Trade 
Journal : — 
“ In consequence of the free alcohol law' coming into force in the 
United States from the 1st instant, it is expected that larger quantities 
of shellac will be used in the manufacture of varnish, hats, etc., and a 
further appreciation in the price of this material may therefore be ex- 
pected. Of the 13,000 tons of shellac, including button-lac, exported 
in 1905-06 from Calcutta, by far the most important source of shellac, 
6,000 tons went direct to the United States. This represented a large 
increase, and it is interesting to learn that the increased demand for 
shellac in the LTnited States is said to be due to the manufacture of talk- 
ing-machine records. This large demand makes it doubly necessary 
that reckless gathering of the crop m India should be prevented.” 
CHAPTER XV. 
QUANTITIES AND VALUES OF LAC AND LAC-DYE 
EXPORTED. 
The Director-General of Commercial Intelligence has very kindly 
favoured me with the following tables exhibiting the quantities and 
values of lac and lac-dye, respectively, exported from each of the mari- 
time provinces of British India from 1875-76 to 1905-06. 
The first five columns show exports by sea to foreign countries. In 
the case of Burma a second column has been added, as he kindly points 
