322 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



prefer the most prickly varieties of the plant, as affording 

 protection to the cochineal from insects ; to prevent 

 which from depositing their eggs in the flower or fruit, 

 both are carefully cut off. The greatest quantity, how- 

 ever, of cochineal employed in commerce, is produced 

 in small nopaleries belonging to Indians of extreme po- 

 verty, called Nopaleros. They plant their nopaleries in 

 cleared ground on the slopes of mountains or ravines 

 two or three leagues distant from their villages; and when 

 properly cleaned, the plants are in a condition to main- 

 tain the cochineal in the third year. As a stock, the 

 proprietor in April or May purchases branches or joints 

 of the Tuna de Castilla, laden with small cochineal in- 

 sects recently hatched (Semilla). These branches, which 

 may be bought in the market of Oaxaca for about three 

 francs (25. 6d.) the hundred, are kept for twenty days in 

 the interior of their huts, and then exposed to the open 

 air under a shed, where from their succulency they con- 

 tinue to live for several months. In August and Sep- 

 tember the mother cochineal insects, now big with young, 

 are placed in nests made of a species of Tillandsia called 

 Paxtle, which are distributed upon the nopals. In about 

 four months the first gathering, yielding twelve for one, 

 may be made, which in the course of the year is suc- 

 ceeded by two more profitable harvests. This period of 

 sowing and harvest refers chiefly to the districts of Sola 

 and Zimatlan. In colder climates the semilla is not 

 placed upon the nopals until October or even December, 

 when it is necessary to shelter the young insects by co- 

 vering the nopals with rush mats, and the harvests are 

 proportionably later and unproductive. In the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the town of Oaxaca the Nopaleros feed 



