Prospects of Cochineal CuUivatio?i. 83 



quantity, Guatemala furnishes 15,000, the Canary Islands 6000, 

 Mexico 8000, Java and the Philippine Islands together 1000 

 quintals. There is little prospect, therefore, that the cochineal 

 culture of Madeira will ever become an important source 

 of gain, or advantageously compensate for the loss of the 

 vine. Few landowners in the island seem to possess sufficient 

 means to withstand the chances and fluctuations to which its 

 culture is subject. To illustrate this, it may be mentioned, 

 that during our visit to the highlands of Guatemala, in 18.54, 

 when the cochineal harvest was bad, the tercio (150 lbs.) 

 of cochineal cost 140 Spanish piastres. In the following year, 

 when it was unusually productive, the price declined to 80 

 piastres. A tercio of dried cochineal costs the grower, or 

 nopalero, about 50 piastres ; a nopal plantation must lie fallow 

 every third year, being consequently only productive during 

 two years. Have the landowners of Madeira considered all 

 these disadvantages, and will they be able to bear all the 

 drawbacks peculiar to the culture of cochineal ? The climate 

 and soil seem to hold out far greater advantages for the 

 cultivation of the sugar-cane, coffee, cotton, and tobacco. 



There are few spots on the earth's surface which pos- 

 sess a climate so delightful, and so little subject to extremes 

 as Madeira, the mean annual temperature being 64 de- 

 grees Fahrenheit, or only 5 degrees higher than in the most 

 southern parts of Europe. The lowest temperature during 

 five years' observation was 50 degrees, the highest, 74. An 

 invalid residing at Funchal, within his own doors, may always 



G 2 



