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Indian Forest Records. 
[Vox,. VIII 
agencies, and each will have a system of sub-agencies ramifying 
through all the small bazaars where lac is brought in by contractors, 
Baiparis and cultivators. Important sellers in the district are :— 
Dhamtari — 
Jamnadass Pannalal 
Naraindin Jagganath 
Rajim — 
Bansi Lai Amirchand, Contractor of Giriaband Estate 
Gopi Kishan Multani, Contractor of Kalahandi Feudatory 
State (Orissa). 
There is one small factory in the district at Rajim, owned by 
Mr. Lucas. 
There are several zamindaris under management of the Court of 
Wards. Kauria has been so managed for many years and a fair 
outturn of lac obtained. No scientific methods are employed as the 
staff is small and untrained. Sales have generally been by contract 
either on the monopoly system to the highest bidder or by royalty } 
the contractor paying so much per maund of lac exported. 
Government Forests are very large and concentrated in two 
compact blocks, one in the north and one in the south, each under 
a Divisional Forest Officer. In 1905, when the Forests were all 
under one officer, an attempt was made to work lac departmentally. 
To provide labour many forest villages were started, the induce¬ 
ments being that tenants should receive three-fourths of the lac crop 
and Government one-fourth. The system was worked for several 
years, but eventually failed about the time when prices fell in 
1908-09. The officer in charge retired about the same time and 
the industry has never been seriously revived. 
However, a number of very useful lessons can be learnt from 
the records of this experiment. An enumeration was made of Kusum 
trees fit for infection. Twenty thousand were enumerated in two 
ranges (Laon and Sirpur) and it was estimated that there were 
1,50,000 trees in the whole division. If each tree is infected once 
in three years, 50,000 trees might with intensive working be infect¬ 
ed annually. A large Kusum tree has been known to give five to six 
maunds of stick-lac and the average in a good season is probably one 
maund. It is obvious, therefore, that the possibilities were great. 
The records show that about 15,000 trees were infected in 1907-09 
for the Kusmi crop. Unfortunately the crop was very poor owing 
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