Show busy little insect Is manufacturer of shellac few people realize a mans debt to an industrious little insect called lacci lacel fer lacca india first knew it as a ram paging parasite despoiling forests but as the raw manufacturer of shel lac the resin used for making gramo phone records stiffening straw hats coating wood and metals and other in su lating purposes it Is today treated with marked respect knowing its appetite for succulent oung young branches the natives prepare these specially for it attaching them to trees the lac then dines at its pleasure covering the bark with a resinous secretion the female lac Is the most prolific source of supply then when the harvest appears ripe the branches are cut down and scraped I 1 he resin Is melted into a plastic mass which on drying Is cut up into circular cales or sheets ready for export lit I 1 it bits magazine |