124 INSECT MANUFACTURES. 



this there must be a tolerably settled climate, 

 otherwise the harvest will be uncertain. 



When in a favourable situation, the nopal 

 requires less care and cultivation than almost any 

 other plant : it would even appear that the less 

 it is meddled with the better it succeeds. As 

 soon as a nursery ground is laid out, cleaned, and 

 drained, planting commences, the season being the 

 dry period just before the spring rains. Alleys or 

 paths are marked out, forming squares: parallel 

 lines are drawn across these squares north and 

 south. Here the nopals are planted at two feet 

 distance from each other, being clean cuttings 

 from the old plant, and not torn or broken from 

 it. The Indians of Guaxaca plant two or three 

 cuttings in each hole, lest any accident should 

 prevent one from striking. Eighteen months 

 afterwards the plants will be in a state to nourish 

 the cochineal. 



The sowing of cochineal, as it is called, is per- 

 formed at day-break, the insects being conveyed 

 from the old plants and attached to the new. For 

 this purpose they are placed in little nests made 



