Part I] Lindsay and Harlow : Lac and Shellac 
53 
given for one year only. 
C. P. type of lac lease 
other provinces also :— 
V. That the lessee agrees :— 
The following are important clauses in the 
They have occasionally been adopted by 
(J?) that as far as possible all lac shall be collected after the 
insects have emerged from it; 
(c) to leave unbroken, at each harvest of lac, at least two- 
thirds of the total quantity of seed-lac on each tree to 
ensure the propagation of lac during and after the 
period of this agreement. 
Clause Vb. is a dead letter and is hardly necessary in a long 
lease. In Clause Vc ., two-thirds is too high a proportion to ask for, 
and it is very doubtful if the provisions of this clause are ever carried 
out in practice. 
In 1915—17 a special form of lease was introduced in Damoh, by 
which the contractor paid entirely on outturn, and a sliding scale 
of royalty was arrived at by deducting the expenses of cultivation, 
freight, manufacturing charges, brokerage, and profits, etc., from the 
average rate of TN shellac at Calcutta, as published by a well-known 
firm of brokers. The result was divided by two, and was the rate 
per maund, paid as royalty by the contractor. The expenses were 
fixed at Rs. 28, so that the formula was, where TN is the rate per 
maund of TN shellac at Calcutta :— 
Royalty TN ^ 28 . 
The basis of the system is excellent, theoretically. The price of 
shellac varies widely and the value of stick-lac follows in proportion ; 
so that if a long term lease is executed for a fixed cash payment, the 
lessee runs a risk of loss if the price of shellac falls ; whereas if the 
price rises the lessor gets considerably less for his lac than it is 
worth. By adopting the Damoh method, both sides are protected. 
If the price of shellac rises, the royalty paid by the lessee auto¬ 
matically rises, and if the shellac rates fall the royalty paid automati¬ 
cally falls. Thus the lessee is insured against a fall in the market and 
the lessor is secure of contingent profits following a rise. 
Payment by outturn, however, has never been found by the 
Forest Department to be quite satisfactory. The staff required for 
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