DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 183 
ten years later, by dissections and microscopical observations, incontro- 
vertibly proved its real origin.* 
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, 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 Mopaleros. 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. Asa stock, the proprietor in April or May purchases branches or 
joints of the Z’wna 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 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 Pawtle, 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 
nonals 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 (Zemazealli) 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, 418. Reaum, iy. 88. 
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