LIVE STOCK AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS 347 



special trees, the establishment of insect colonies on them, 

 methods of pruning and scraping the lac, and other operations 

 connected with the industry. At present there is a tendency, 

 therefore, to make shellac production an agricultural industry 

 rather than the mere haphazard collection of a wild by-prod- 

 uct. The total output of shellac from India has an annual 

 value of about $3,500,000 and a small shellac industry has been 

 established in Ceylon. The average yield is about four to six 

 pounds of stick-lac per tree. 



COCHINEAL 



The trade term cochineal signifies the bodies of a female 

 scale insect known as Pseudococcus cacti which feeds on cer- 

 tain species of cactus. These insects were originally culti- 

 vated or cared for by the Indians of Mexico and Central 

 America and were later introduced into the Canary Islands, 

 Algeria, Java, Australia, and elsewhere. About 70,000 cochi- 

 neal insects are required to make a pound of crude cochineal 

 which yields 10 per cent, of pure dye. A few years ago the 

 annual importation of cochineal into England from the Canary 

 Islands amounted to 260,000 pounds, and in the eighties the 

 United States imported 500,000 pounds of cochineal annually. 

 The natural cochineal industry, however, like that of madder 

 and indigo has been practically destroyed by the cheap aniline 

 dyes manufactured in Germany. There is still quite an in- 

 dustry in cochineal, however, in Oaxaca, Mexico, among 

 the Indians who maintain plantations of the Nopal cactus for 

 this purpose. These Indians carefully preserve colonies of 

 the cochineal insect and distribute them upon the cactus. 

 In Teneriffe the insects are cultivated on Opuntia ficus- 

 indica. 



In harvesting this product the insects are scraped off, killed 

 by plunging into hot water, and then dried. Cochineal is used 

 not only as a pure dye but in the preparation of extremely valu- 



