BENEFICIAL INSECTS 227 



a statement in d'Alembert and Diderot's JEncyclopcedia, in 

 which they say that eight hundred thousand pounds of 

 cochineal, of the value of 15,500,690 francs, reached Europe 

 in 1734, and in 1760 the insect, to the value of 4,000,000 

 francs, reached Marseilles alone, and De Humboldt relates 

 that, at the time of his voyage to America, the annual 

 export of this commodity exceeded 12,000,000 francs. 



De Ruusscher gives some interesting details of the 

 cultivation of cochineal, by the Mexicans, at the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century. During the winter the insects 

 were kept indoors, as a protection against inclement 

 weather ; but when the warm weather arrived, as soon as 

 they were old enough to reproduce their kind, they were 

 placed, twelve together, in little nests made by the natives 

 out of hay, straw, moss, or, best of all, from the most 

 tender fibres of the cocoa-nut. The nests and their contents 

 were then affixed to the prickly pears, and, in due course, 

 the larvae emerged from the nests, sought out the greenest 

 and youngest parts of the plants, and collected, for the 

 most part, on the sides sheltered from the prevailing winds. 

 During their growth they were most carefully tended and 

 protected from their enemies, even spiders' webs being 

 cleaned from the prickly pears, lest the precious insects 

 should be harmed; moreover, the wild cochineal insects, 

 which also flourished on the same plants, were considered 

 so objectionable that they were not allowed to mingle with 

 their pampered relatives. There were three harvests a 

 year, and, at the last one, branches, laden with the cochineal 

 parasites, were cut and taken indoors so that they might 

 be protected during the rainy season. The usual method of 

 killing the insects was either by pouring boiling water over 

 them or by roasting them in specially constructed ovens ; at 

 times, however, they were roasted on the frying-pans which 

 the native women used for baking their bread, and, in dry- 

 ing, the insects lost one-third of their weight. These cultural 

 methods have changed but little with the march of time. 



