Part I] Lindsay and Harlow.: Lac and Shellac 23 
The following figures show the relative importance of these areas 
by outturn :— 
Area. 
Average total annual 
crop in maunds. 
Percentage of total 
outturn. 
1 
Mds. 
Main area ... 
1,003,500 
86 6 
Sind 
26,000 
2 *2 
The Punjab... 
33,ooo 
29 
Assam ... ... 
65,000 
3 ’o 
Burma, etc.... 
1 
62,000 
5’3 
Total 
*,* 59,500 
lOO’O 
The Burma figures include an average of 7,000 maunds 
annually from French Indo-China and 16,000 from Siam, both of which 
are actually exported to France, and 9,000 from the Straits Settle¬ 
ments, usually exported to India. 
The commercial importance of the subsidiary areas is even less 
than the above figures show, as all the high grade lacs are grown in the 
main area. The lac from Assam and Burma is hardly fit for the 
manufacture of even the low grades of Orange shellac and is com- 
monly used for Garnet lac. Sind lac is quite good enough for TN 
and Punjab lac for better grades. There seems to be some indica¬ 
tion that the further one goes from the main area, the worse is the 
quality of the lac. 
An attempt has been made by means of the map attached to this 
report, to show the distribution of lac in the districts and Native 
States of the main area of production. There is no pretension that 
this map is accurate in detail. No attempt has been made to show 
the relative intensity of cultivation but this may well be judged by 
the occurrence of the large and small markets. The principal species 
of host-trees are indicated, together with the markets and manufac¬ 
turing centres. Further details of distribution will be found in the 
local notes at the end of the report. 
From the above account it is clear that India has a virtual mono¬ 
poly of lac. Attempts have been made to transfer brood from India 
to Japan and parts of Africa; but, it is believed, with no success 
[23] 
