153 
Part I] Lindsay and Harlow : Lac and Shellac 
Chatomal Metholal of Hyderabad 
Deomal Sadarangani of Hyderabad. 
Most of the lac is grown on private lands. 
The average outturn from the Government Forests of Hyderabad 
and Jerruck Divisions is about 1,000 maunds, while the Public 
Works Department obtains almost as much from lands in its charge. 
Contracts are usually given and there is little departmental cultiva¬ 
tion. The total outturn of Sind is supposed to be about 20,000 
maunds Baisakhi and 6,000 maunds Katki annually, but these 
figures are not very reliable. The greater part of this lac is exported 
to Mirzapur for shellac manufacture, but before the war an average 
of 5,500 maunds of grain-lac was manufactured at Hyderabad and 
exported from Karachi, the principal exporters being Messrs. 
Donald Graham and Co., and Messrs. Ralli Bros. 
The quality of Sind lac is hardly equal to the Indian Baisakhi 
and Katki, but is better than either Assam or Burma lac and is suit¬ 
able for TN manufacture. 
Government Forests have been in the habit of supplying brood-lac 
when required. It is suggested that they might now go further and 
experiment with departmental cultivation. 
Bengal. 
The only important areas in the Bengal Presidency, as now con¬ 
stituted, are the extensions of the Sonthal Parganas (Pakaur) area into 
Malda, Murshidabad and Birbhum districts, and of the Manbhum area 
into Bankura and Midnapur. 
The Malda lac area is a fringe along the Ganges. In Murshida¬ 
bad, the Jangipur sub-division produces a large quantity of lac and 
it occurs scattered in other parts of the district. In Birbhum, the 
northern part of the district produces most lac. Pakaur forms the 
centre of the lac industry for all these areas, with subsidiary markets 
at Dhulian, Jangipur, etc. 
A fair quantity of lac is grown in the west of Bankura and 
Midnapur adjoining Manbhum and it grows sporadically in many 
ether parts of these districts. Apparently the cultivation of lac 
was once on a much larger scale, as the Bengal administration report 
of 1901-02 states that “ the manufacture of shellac is an important 
industry in the Bankura district and is chiefly carried on in the town 
of Sonamukhi ”—“ the main supply of this article for all the factories 
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