Show busy little insect la Is manufacturer of shellac few people realize a mans debt to an industrious little insect called lacal ter fer lacca india arst knew it ns as a ram paging parasite despoiling forests but as toe the raw manufacturer of 0 shel she lac the resin used for making gramophone ph ne records stiffening straw hats coating wood and metals and other I 1 insulating D su purposes it Is today treated with marked respect knowing its appetite for succulent 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 lae lac Is the most pro prolific lille source of supply then when the harvest appears ripe the branches are cut down and scraped the resin Is melted into a plastic mass which on dr drying ying Is cut up into circular cakes or sheets ready tor for export tit bits magazine |