125 
Part I] Lindsay and Harlow : Lac and Shellac 
There are, it is true, two large factories in Ranchi belonging to Rai 
Sahib Thakur Das and Rang Lai Sahu respectively. The former 
has about 45 working stoves ; the latter about 70. Rai Sahib Thakur 
Das has also a branch factory at Muru. Besides these, there are only 
a few small factories in Bundu. As one would expect from a district 
producing quantities of Kusum lac, the grades manufactured are 
largely fines and superfines of private marks, both in the form of 
orange shellac and button-lac. The district presents an excellent 
opportunity for the extension of manufacture. Communications are 
fairly good and Ranchi and Lohardaga suggest themselves as suitable 
localities for factories. 
Government assistance in the extension and improvement of 
cultivation is most desirable. The field is large, but unfortunately 
sufficient local knowledge has not been obtained to make it possible 
to suggest definite areas for brood farms, although the neighbourhoods 
of Bundu, Khunti and Lohardaga appear to be suitable. 
Manbhum. 
Manbhum is the biggest and most important lac-producing dis¬ 
trict in India. Lac is grown throughout the district, but chiefly in 
the western and southern portions of the Sadr sub-division in thanas 
Chas (west), Jhalda, Baghmundi, Ichagarh, Chandil, Barabazar, Band- 
wan and Manbazar. The important centres of the lac-growing area 
are Balarampur (Barabhum), Jhalda, Chas, Manbazar. 
A small quantity is also collected in the north of the Dhanbad , 
sub-division with centre at Gobindpur. 
The principal host-trees are Schleichera trijuga (Kusum), Zizy- 
phus Jujuba (Kuli, Ber or wild plum), Butea frondosa (Paras or Palas), 
but lac is also grown in small quantities on Dalbergia latifolia (Satse), 
Ficus spp., Ougeinia dalbergioides (Pandon) and many other 
trees. 
Cultivation is more intense in this district than anywhere else in 
India. The methods are, however, not much more advanced. The 
ease with which Ber can be grown and the quality of its lac crops 
have led to a certain amount of artificial regeneration of the species. 
The clumps of Ber round the village sites are a feature of this land¬ 
scape and in some cases gardens (bans) have been given up entirely 
to its cultivation. Very occasionally regular plantations of Ber up 
to an acre in extent are to be seen. The trees on a tenant’s holdiner 
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