DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 271 



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 oiF. 

 The greatest quantity, however, of cochineal employed in 

 commerce, is produced in small nopaleries belonging to In- 

 dians of extreme poverty, called Nopaleros. 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. 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 (25. 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 Paxtle, 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 

 Zimatlau. In colder climates the semilla is not placed upon 

 the nopals until October or even December, when it is neces- 

 sary to shelter the young insects by covering the nopals with 

 rush mats, and the harvests are proportionably later and un- 

 productive. 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 gather- 

 ing the cochineal from the nopals, which is performed with a 

 squirrel or stag's tail by the Indian women, who for this 



