»8 ON THE TALLOW TREE, ETC. 



former they are soaked in water in which unhusked rice has been 

 washed and tbeir shells ponnded off. When propagated by cuttings, 

 branches an inch in diameter are recommended as the most suitable 

 size. 



The ground is ploughed semi-annually, and kept perfectly free from 

 weeds. In the third or fourth year they are stocked with the insects. 

 After the wax, or insect, has been gathered from the young trees, they 

 are cut down just below the lower branches, about four feet from the 

 ground, and well manured. The branches which sprout the following 

 season are thinned, and made to grow in nearly a perpendicular direc- 

 tion. The process of cutting the trunk within a short distance of the 

 ground is repeated every four or five years, and, as a general rule, they 

 are not stocked until the second year after this operation. 



Sometimes the husbandman finds a tree which the insects them- 

 selves have attained ; but the usual practice is to stock them, which is 

 effected in spring, with the nests of the insect. These are about the 

 size of a " fowl's head ?" and are removed by cutting off a portion of the 

 branch to which they are attached, leaving an inch each side of the nest. 

 The sticks, with the adhering nests, are soaked in unhusked rice-water 

 for a quarter of an hour, when they may be separated. When the 

 weather is damp or cool they may be preserved in jars for a week ; 

 but if warm, they are to be tied to the branches of the trees to be stocked, 

 without delay, being first folded between leaves. By some the nests are 

 probed out of their seat in the bark of the tree, without removing the 

 branches. At this period they are particularly exposed to the attacks 

 of birds, and require watching. 



In a few days after being tied to the tree, the nests swell, and 

 innumerable white insects, the size of " nits," emerge, and spread them- 

 selves on the branches of the tree ; but soon, with one accord, descend 

 towards the ground, when, if they find any grass, they take up their 

 quarters. To prevent this, the ground is kept quite bare ; care being 

 taken also that their implacable enemies, the ants, have no access to the 

 tree. Finding no congenial resting-place below, they re-ascend, and 

 fix themselves to the lower surface of the leaves, where they remain 

 Beveral days, when they repair to the branches, perforating the bark to 

 feed on the fluid within. 



From " nits " they attain the size of " Pediculus horui." Having 

 compared them to this, the most familiar to them of all insects, our 

 author deems further description superfluous. Early in June the insects 

 give to the trees the appearance of being covered with hoar-frost, being 

 " changed into wax 5" soon after this they are scraped off, being pre- 

 viously sprinkled with water. If gathering be deferred till August, they 

 adhere too firmly to be easily removed. Those which are suffered to 

 remain to stock trees the ensuing season, secrete a purplish envelope 

 about the end of August, which at first is no larger than a grain of rice ; 

 but as incubation proceeds, it expands and becomes as large as a fowl's 



