206 COCCUS CACTI. 



plant their nopalorics in cleared ground on the slopes of moun- 

 tains or ravines, two or three leagues distance from the 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 insects recently hatched 

 (Semilla). 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 con- 

 tinue 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 Paxtlc, which are dis- 

 tributed upon the nopals. In about four months the first gather- 

 ing, 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 

 Zimatlin. 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 favourable. 



Much care is necessary in the tedious operation of gathering 

 the cochineal 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 the 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 ovens [TemazealU) used for vapour baths. The last of 

 these methods, which is least in use, preserves the whitish powder 

 on the body of the cochineal, which being less subject to the 



