36 
Indian Forest Records. 
[Vol. VIII 
one-half year and rest for 2\ years, when it will again be infected. 
On poor soils the one year rotation for Ber will probably have to be 
lengthened, though C. S. Misra(Pusa Bulletin No. 28, 1912, Culti¬ 
vation of Lac in the plains of India) states that successive crops have 
been obtained from it at Pusa for six years. Ber is, however, usually 
found on good soils or near habitations where it gets manured and 
tends to be vigorous. 
When operations begin, pruning will be necessary in order to 
p . ^ provide the maximum number of young 
succulent shoots for the swarming larvae. 
The periods of pruning are those when the growth of the host-tree 
is at its minimum. Most trees cease to grow for a time during the 
winter, and in many places February is an excellent time for pruning 
in preparation for the subsequent summer brood in July. For the 
winter infection in October-November (December-January for Kusum) 
pruning in July and early August will probably interfere least with 
the growth of the tree. It may be found possible to prune in Febru¬ 
ary for lac inoculation in the following winter, but this is a matter 
for experiment. Misra (loc. cit.) should be consulted by lac cultiva¬ 
tors and much assistance has been taken from him in writing this 
chapter. 
Sharp, heavy-blad ed knives only should be used in all lac work. 
The axe should never be used as it does not give a clean cut, tends 
to strip the bark and frequently results in serious damage to the tree. 
It is very likely that a large-sized pair of rose-growers’ pruning shears 
would be found useful in lac cultivation, specially the recently advertised 
patterns with a draw-cut. Vigorous trees should be lightly pruned, old 
and decrepit trees heavily pruned. If vigorous young trees are heavily 
pruned the resulting pollard shoots will be fewer than with light pruning, 
will present a much smaller area for the lac insect and may become 
rapidly suberised towards their base, and unfit for inoculation. 
Misra advises dressing all pruned stumps with coal-tar or cow-dung. 
This is advisable but will only be possible where an ample labour 
supply is assured. 
During the first rotation almost every tree will have to be pruned. 
In subsequent rotations it is hoped that the removal of the lac-bearing 
twigs will be sufficient. In fact the criterion of a correct rotation 
should be that the trees in a coupe become, by recovery of their vigour, 
