DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 183 



ten years later, by dissections and microscopical observations, incontro- 

 vertibly proved its real origin. 1 



This insect, which comes to us in the form of a reddish shrivelled grain 

 covered with a white powder or bloom, feeds on a particular kind of 

 Indian fig, called in Mexico, where alone cochineal is produced in any 

 quantity, Nopal, which has always been supposed to be the Cactus cochini- 

 lifer y but according to Humboldt is unquestionably a distinct species, which 

 bears fruit internally white. 



Cochineal is chiefly cultivated in the Intendency of Oaxaca ; and some 

 plantations contain 50,000 or 60,000 nopals in lines, each being kept about 

 four feet high for more easy access in collecting the dye. The cultivators 

 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, 

 however, of cochineal employed in commerce, is produced in small no- 

 paleries belonging to Indians of extreme poverty, 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 maintain 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 insects recently 

 hatched (SemUla). These branches which' may be bought in the market 

 of Oaxaca for about three francs (2s. 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 continue to live for 

 several months. In August and September 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 succeeded 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 covering the nopals with rush mats, and the harvests 

 are proportionably later and unproductive. In the immediate vicinity of 

 the town of Oaxaca the Nopaleros feed their cochineal insects in the plains 

 from October to April, and at the beginning of the remaining months, 

 during which it rains in the plains, transport them to their plantations of 

 nopals in the neighbouring mountains, where the weather is more favour- 

 able. 



Much care is necessary in the tedious operation of gathering the cochi- 

 neal from the nopals, which is performed with a squirrel or stag's tail by 

 the Indian women, who for this purpose squat down for hours together 

 beside one plant ; and notwithstanding the high price of the cochineal, it 

 is to be doubted if the cultivation would be profitable were the value of 

 labour more considerable. 



The cochineal insects are killed either by throwing them into boiling 

 water, by exposing them in heaps to the sun, or by placing them in the 

 ovens (Temazealli) used for vapour baths. The last of these methods, 

 which is least in use, preserves the whitish powder on the body of the 



1 Bancroft, i. 413. Reaum. iv. 88. 

 K 4 



