3 ? 
j?ART I] Lindsay and Harrow : Lac and Shellac 
automatically in a condition for re-infection as their turn comes 
round. Trees or parts of trees where infection fails will have to be 
re-pruned in the second rotation. 
Before commencing to infect his trees, the cultivator must have 
ascertained correctly the times of emer¬ 
gence of the insect. These vary from 
district to district and with the species of the host, and the only 
way to discover them is by personal observation or by local enquiry. 
The swarming in any particular district is regular almost within a 
few days, but the winter swarm tends to be delayed by late rains and 
accelerated if the monsoon is short. Similarly a damp hot weather 
tends to delay the summer swarming. 
About three weeks or a month before swarming the insect loses 
its white filaments and orange spots appear above each mother cell. 
At this time the mother insect ceases to feed and all her energies 
are taken up with the development of the coming brood. The 
appearance of the orange spots is a safe indication that she has 
reached this stage and will suffer no harm if her food supply is 
stopped. All the brood-lac required for purposes of propagation 
should now be gathered, care being taken to select only healthy and 
* vigorous lac for this purpose. Any lac which appears to be full of 
predators should be rejected. The twigs should be cut into lengths 
of eight inches to one foot and stored until required in a moderate 
temperature and kept well ventilated. As the time of emergence 
approaches there is no need to store newly collected brood-lac, but 
it may be put out immediately on the trees prepared for inoculation. 
All twigs not bearing any lac should be cut off. 
Several methods may be employed for infecting trees. The 
ideal is that which resembles natural conditions most, namely to 
wedge and tie the stick of brood-lac between two twigs to be infected, 
so that each of its two extremities touches a twig. The emerging 
larvae can then walk directly from either end of the brood stick on 
to their new home. This method is, however, far too laborious 
for practical purposes. The commonest method is to tie several 
sticks of brood-lac loosely with straw to a branch of the tree imme¬ 
diately below the point from which a group of pollard shoots origin¬ 
ates. The actual tying of the brood to the tree can frequently be 
dispensed with by placing the brood sticks in among the bases of a 
[37] 
