I 
CHAPTER VI. 
Collection and Storage, 
The collection of lac often begins as early as the latter half of 
Collection March for Baisakhi and early September 
for Katki. Needless to say, at these periods 
the lac is not fully developed and the cultivator collecting so 
early is deliberately sacrificing an increased yield for the sake of 
immediate profits, and also in many cases is hoping to minimize the 
risk of theft. Collection will continue until all the crop, except such 
as may be reserved for brood, has been harvested. The lac is then 
separated from the twig either by scraping, by soaking in water and 
then splitting the twig when the lac falls away (Ber only), or, if the 
lac is phunki , by pounding. It must now be carefully dried in the 
shade and for this purpose is spread out in layers not more than four 
or five inches deep and repeatedly turned over until dry. Ari lac, 
since it has been collected before the insects swarm, is full of moisture 
and therefore requires much more careful and prolonged drying than 
phunki lac. Once dried the lac, now known as dal lac, is sometimes 
winnowed to remove all sticks, stones, bits of wood and fibre, sarid, 
and other foreign matter, and is then known as clean stick-lac or 
biuli lac. 
Where lac is grown by villagers in the gardens around their 
houses, the above processes are easily arranged for. When, however, 
lac is grown on a large scale, considerable attention has to be paid 
to method and suitable arrangements made so that the stick-lac, cut 
each day, can be removed from the wood and can start drying from 
the day of collection. This applies more particularly to ari than to 
phunki lac; but, in any case, the quicker the lac is dried and finished, 
the better. 
The above processes are, of course, applied only by the more 
advanced cultivators. One has only to visit any stick-lac market to 
realize how careless the preparation of lac may be. Frequently the 
lac is collected ari, when it is thoroughly wet, saturated with moisture, 
and contains the living bodies of the mother insects distended to 
large size and occupying fully 25 per cent, of the bulk of the lac. It 
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