Part I] Lindsay and Harlow : Lac and Shellac 
39 
Department has been in the habit of leasing out the right to cultivate 
and collect lac, but on the expiry of the existing leases it is pro¬ 
posed to cultivate departmentally, 
The only important market is Gondia, to which also lac comes 
from Balaghat, Mandla, Seoni, Chhindwara and Chanda districts. 
Balaghat sends about 5,000 maunds annually. The others much less. 
Good crops in Gondia are : — 
Maunds. 
Baisakhi ... ... ... ... ... 40,000 
Katki ... ... ... ... ... 50,000 
Contracts are generally very petty and the contractors are usually 
of low caste and poor education, financed by dealers and brokers who 
naturally pocket most of the profits. Contracts are usually for five to 
ten years and are very simple agreements. The consequence is that 
during the recent boom, unsophisticated contractors were tricked out 
of their contracts. They are now becoming more alive to their in¬ 
terests and are registering their contracts and taking legal advice. 
Cultivation is primitive in the extreme and the outturn could be 
largely increased by the introduction of improved methods. There 
is a good field for Government influence in demonstration and the 
supply of healthy brood-lac. A large area containing Palas should 
be acquired near Sonder or Dewalgaon Railway stations, and put 
in charge of the Forest Department, who with a staff of two or three 
men could control an area of 100 to 200 acres. This area would be 
rAanaged as a brood farm and demonstration area and should result in 
at least doubling the present yield from Gondia market. 
Alongside the Public Works roads and on the Bengal-Nagpur 
Railway embankments are large numbers of Palas trees at present 
uncultivated but to which lac has frequently spread by the agency 
of wind. It is understood that no revenue is at present obtained from 
these and it is suggested that leases should be offered to the public 
and development encouraged. 
There are two small factories in Gondia owned by Mahibir 
Prasad Sundar Lai and Mahibir Prasad Ajodhya. They make TN 
shellac only. There is room for many more factories, but owing to 
there being no Kusmi available, only low grade shellac can be 
manufactured. 
[139] 
