Indian Forest Records. 
is 
[Vol. VIII 
number of pollard shoots. Misra recommends the use of small 
bamboo receptacles (costing 12 annas per hundred) fully described 
by him. These are filled with sticks of brood-lac and tied to the tree 
immediately below the points of infection. The advantage of the use 
of these receptacles is that they can be made and filled at a central 
depot, are quickly put out on the trees and after infection can be 
rapidly collected. An important problem which can only be solved 
by practical experience is how to avoid over-infecting the trees and 
how to use, at each point of infection, the correct amount of brood- 
lac and no more. With cultivation on a small scale the brood can 
be removed when the trees are sufficiently infected, but in large scale 
work this is impossible and the amount of brood required can only 
be estimated. 
As soon as the infection of the new coupe is satisfactorily 
completed, every bit of lac (now phunki) 
Scheme of operations. 
can be removed from the old coupe and 
sold ; as also the lac fastened to the new coupe, when the brood has 
swarmed. 
The work in a Kusum area during the first rotation will be as 
follows, the cropping series having been divided into six coupes 
numbered I, II, III, IV, V, VI 
February 1920... 
July 1920 
August 1920 ... 
Dec. 1920, Jan. 1921 
January 1921 ... 
February 1921... 
July 1921 
August 1921 ... 
Dec. 1921, Jan. 1922 
... Prune all trees in Coupe I. 
... Collect brood-lac and infect trees in Coupe I. 
... Collect phunki brood-lac in Coupe I and prune trees in 
Coupe II. 
... Collect brood-lac from Coupe I and infect in Coupe II. 
... Completely remove all lac from Coupe I and collect the 
phunki lac in Coupe II. 
... Prune trees in Coupe III. 
... Collect brood-lac from Coupe II and infect in Coupe III. 
... Completely remove all lac from Coupe II and collect phunki 
lac in Coupe III and prune in Coupe IV. 
... Collect brood-lac from Coupe III and infect in Coupe IV ; 
completely remove all lac from Coupe III, 
and so on. 
As the lac cultivator will have to keep a careful watch against 
theft during the months late April, May, June, and again in late 
September, October, November, it is clear that lac cultivation is 
practically a whole-time employment with slack periods (where Kusum 
is the host) in March-April and again in September. Where other 
trees are hosts the slack periods will be rather earlier in the year. 
[38] 
