140 
Indian Forest Records. 
[Vol. VIII 
The principal Arhatiyas or commission agents are :—- 
Jagannath Ghansilal 
and 
Ramgopal Suraf Baran. 
As each new crop enters the market numerous agents and dealers 
come to Gondia from Mirzapur, Jhalda, Balarampur and even from 
Calcutta, to make their purchases ; some also are permanently resi¬ 
dent there. 
Balaghat. 
Cultivation is chiefly on Palas. The principal area is in the 
south-east adjoining Bhandara district. There are patches of lac 
elsewhere, but not many, and there is very little grown in Govern¬ 
ment Forest. The system of leasing and local conditions are similar 
to those in Bhandara district. The Forest Department is arranging 
for experiments to be made in a small area of forest used by the 
Forest School for practice purposes. No other Government action 
is required. 
Balaghat district produces annually about 5,000 maunds of lac 
which is mostly sold in Gondia market. 
Mandla. 
Mandla is a wild and jungly district, practically undeveloped so 
far as lac is concerned. The whole district is heavily wooded and 
there are large areas of Government Forest. A small quantity of 
lac is grown and numbers of small contracts are given out by Mai- 
guzars and by the Forest Department. The Kusum tree is fairly 
common in some parts of the North Mandla Forest Division and 
there are large areas of Palas forest, mostly however in Malguzari 
lands. On the expiry of the existing leases, the Forest Department 
proposes to take up lac cultivation departmentally. There will be 
no necessity for any action beyond that to be taken by the Depart¬ 
ment, which will be able to supply brood-lac and demonstrate 
methods of propagation and cultivation to owners of private forest. 
The contractors employed at present take very little interest in actual 
cultivation and merely collect the lac from tenants who cultivate at 
will or collect lac where it grows wild. 
The South Mandla Forest Division is mostly Sal and is of doubt¬ 
ful value as a lac-producing area. It would be advisable to make a 
rough survey to discover whether Kusum occurs in any abundance. 
[140] 
