42 
Indian Forest Records. 
[Vol. VIII 
important that the price should be carefully settled. If the price of 
brood-lac is fixed too low, there is a danger, in fact a certainty, that it 
will be bought up and sold by speculators to the stick-lac dealers. 
The price must therefore be somewhat above the current stick-lac 
price, and it is suggested that it be based either on current clean 
biuli lac prices or on Calcutta TN rates. In the former case, as 
brood-lac contains the stick, the desired safeguard will be secured 
if it is sold at the local biuli rate. If the Calcutta TN rate is adopted 
as the standard, then different rates will have to be calculated for 
different kinds of brood :— 
Palas brood should be one-half Calcutta TN rates. 
Ber and Ghont should be slightly more than half, say three- 
fifths. 
Kusum brood should be seven-tenths of Calcutta TN rates. 
These rates will be absolutely fair and a mere fraction of what 
brood-lac is often sold for nowadays; yet they are sufficiently 
high to prevent unscrupulous dealers buying up the brood as a 
speculation in stick-lac, and will ensure that only the man who 
wants it for propagation will buy it. Any reduction of the price 
below these figures, as an inducement to purchase, can only defeat 
its own purpose. 
In the management of the brood farms, the following facts must 
be remembered. For two months in the year, that is one month 
before the emergence of the larvae of each brood, the staff will be 
very busy both collecting and disposing of brood and also infecting 
and guarding trees within the farm, so that the staff must be large 
enough to carry on both these operations simultaneously. The 
brood can be collected for sale about one month before emergence is 
expected, but during the first fortnight no more should be collected 
than can be disposed of in a few days. During the second fortnight 
the whole of the brood may be collected and should be stored in a 
cool, airy store-room, laid out in rows on bamboo supports. After 
the brood has emerged any lac remaining will be scraped from the 
stick and sold in the markets in the ordinary way. 
The Overseer in immediate charge of each brood farm should 
also be qualified to undertake demonstra- 
Lac specialists. tion wor [ <> anc j should be encouraged to 
inspect the lac operations of neighbouring cultivators [and zamindars 
[42] 
