ANIMALS. 
215 
able and brilliant dye which it yields, is found on the Pacific 
coast, where the Cactus coccinellifer^ from which it derives its 
nourishment, grows in great abundance. Formerly this insect 
was reared with care, and formed a valuable article of com- 
merce until the discovery of French chemical dyes. Its cul- 
ture was almost exclusively confined to the State of Oaxaca, 
and was a source of great profit. Lately, however, owing to 
the substitution of chemical equivalents, its value has been so 
much reduced as not to justify the great expenditure of time 
and labor required in its production. Indeed it may be well to 
mention, that in the year succeeding the discovery and use of 
the substitutes referred to, the price of cochineal in Oaxaca fell 
from three dollars to fifty cents per pound; the consequence 
was a universal bankruptcy, from the effects of which the State 
has not yet recovered. 
The following is the method of cultivating the plant in the 
district of Oaxaca : The plantations are called nopaleros, and 
the female insects, which are wingless, are placed (when with 
young) in small numbers upon different parts of the cactus. 
This is called sowing. In this manner they increase rapidly in 
size and numbers for four or five months, when the harvest 
commences, and the insects are swept off with a soft brush 
(generally a deer's tail) by the Indian women, who often sit for 
hours under a single nopal plant, and kill them by scalding 
water, or by powerful vapors, which latter method, though 
more expensive and difficult, enhances their value, by preserving 
the powdery substance untouched. It requires about 70,000 of 
these insects to make the weight of a pound. 
A species of honey-bee is found in some parts of the country 
in surprising numbers. They are smaller than the ordinary 
Apis mellifica of other countries, and stingless. Their nests are 
usually constructed in hollow trees, and such is the prolific re- 
sult of their labors in the flowery fields of the Isthmus, that the 
Indians have been known to gather ten or twelve gallons of 
honey in a day. The quality of this honey is somewhat inferior 
to that of the domestic bee. The quantity of wax produced by 
this class of insects on the Isthmus is prodigiously great, and in 
connection with the honey gathered by them would doubtless 
