COLOUR-PKODUCING INSECTS. 49 



tleman introduced the cactus and cochineal there 

 from Honduras, he was looked upon as an eccentric 

 man, and his plantations were frequently destroyed 

 at night. However, when the grape disease broke 

 out, Orotava was gradually forsaken by vessels in 

 quest of wine which could no longer be supplied ; 

 and with starvation staring them in the face, the 

 inhabitants turned to cochineal growing : wherever 

 a cactus was seen upon the island, a little bag of 

 cochineal insect was immediately pinned to it. The 

 essay succeeded admirably. An acre of the driest 

 land planted with cactus was found to yield three 

 hundred pounds of cochineal, and, under favourable 

 circumstances, five hundred pounds, worth 75 to 

 the grower. Such a profitable investment of land 

 was never before made. In the south of Teneriffe, 

 the cochineal insect thrives best, and two har- 

 vests are made in the year; in the north of the 

 island only one harvest is made, and the growers 

 are consequently obliged to buy fresh insects every 

 season from the south, as the little beings cannot 

 survive the northern winter. 



Now, we know from experiments that in warm 

 climates as many as six harvests of cochineal may be 

 made in the year ; and these are so abundant, the first 

 more especially, that more than one million pounds 

 weight of cochineal arrives in Europe every year. 

 The cactus knows no greater enemy than rain 



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