40 
Indian Forest Records. 
[Vol VIII 
General. 
cultivation of lac should be high, but it is also clear that the labour 
required for intensive cultivation on a large scale will be considerable. 
In the example taken above, no debit has been shown for capital 
charges such as buildings, which will not be heavy, or for rent, which 
it is impossible to estimate. 
The enemies of lac have already been dealt with in Chapter I. 
It is impossible to suggest any safeguards 
against predators and parasites until more 
is known of their life-histories and habits. In the meantime the use 
of clean brood-lac as free as possible from parasites and predators is 
to be encouraged. Imms and Chatterjee found that lac from the 
Hoshangabad district of the C. P. was cleaner than any other. 
Enquiries for brood should be made at Itarsi and Bankheri. The 
Divisional Forest Officer might be able to supply some, but most of 
the lac in this district is grown outside Government Forests. 
Labour conditions are an important consideration and have 
already been described. The selected site must be one in which the 
local labour supply is plentiful and not predisposed against the culti¬ 
vation of lac. The remedy is to offer good wages and to show that 
up-to-date methods of cultivation, and particularly the collection of 
phunki lac only for the market, tend to foster and not to destroy the 
insect. When it is demonstrated that scientific methods ensure better 
results and bigger profits, the cultivator will not be slow in adopting 
them. Meanwhile the method described above, of reserving a few 
trees for brood purposes, is extending and will be found an excellent 
stepping-stone towards the adoption of more scientific methods when 
they are known. 
All the authorities who have written on the subject have suggested 
improved methods of lac cultivation, but it 
ed T met3s < ?f tl c°u“tivat”n r0V ‘ is not so eas y to S ive Practical effect to 
such methods or to ensure their general 
do ption. The Forest Department is probably the best adapted for 
the work, particularly in the Central Provinces where the Forest staff 
is in close touch with the cultivator throughout the greater part of the 
Province. There are certain areas, however, especially in the Chattis- 
garh Division, where there is little or no Government Forest and 
where in consequence special arrangements will have to be made. 
The other important lac-producing province, Bihar and Orissa, has 
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