30 
Indian Forest Records. 
[Vol. VIII 
On the face of it, the system seems sound, but the study of the 
life-history of the insect reveals its defects and suggests scope for 
improvement. The position is as follows : The female insects 
remain attached to the branches throughout their life-period of about 
six months. During this period, new succulent twigs have sprouted 
on the tips of the branches on which the insects have secreted lac. 
The natural instinct of the new brood is to pass over the mother 
lac from which they emerge and to progress towards the extremities 
of the branches in their search for the fresh young twigs. Branches 
and twigs cross and re-cross occasionally, and some larvae use these 
natural bridges to find homes on other branches. But the greater 
number undoubtedly settle on the fresh shoots at the end of the 
parent branches ; and these are, of course, destroyed when the parent 
branch is cut in collecting the cold weather phunki crop by the 
Damoh method. It is not argued that t he entire crop is thereby 
destroyed ; if so the lac industry would have died out in the Damoh 
Government Forests, whereas it is increasing. But it is an undoubt¬ 
ed fact that the system does not make full use of the Katki crop 
for propagation ; and it is partly for this reason (in addition to those 
already mentioned) that the Baisakhi crop cannot be used as a com¬ 
mercial crop. A possible alternative would be to break off the 
phunki lac from the twig, leaving the latter ■unscathed with the new 
brood on its extremities. But this procedure would require much 
delicacy of touch, would mean the loss of much good phunki lac left 
adhering to the tree, and would be absolutely impossible of practical 
execution in present labour conditions on any extensive scale. 
Of the lac now grown, only about 2 per cent, comes from Govern¬ 
ment Forests and perhaps 5 per cent, from 
Labour conditions. _ , , , . 
areas leased by large cultivators or con¬ 
tractors. The rest is entirely in the hands of uneducated villagers, 
cultivating a few trees each. The higher caste Hindus are prejudiced 
against the industry on the ground that it involves taking the life 
of the insect. Most of the lactora or lac-growing castes are aborig¬ 
inal, but not all aboriginals will undertake lac cultivation. The 
wilder the districts, the stronger is this caste prejudice. While 
in the Manbhum, Murshidabad and Malda districts it has largely 
disappeared, it is still quite strong in parts of the Central Provinces, 
where only one or two of the many septs ol Gonds will engage 
[30] 
