‘September SO, 1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
2G9 
■for its full development, which, takes place in February 
or March. Each leaf buds with about from five to fifteen 
shoots, according to the nature of the soil and to the 
^quantity of manure and water supplied to it. In hand- 
ding these plants great care is taken to avoid bruising 
‘the main trunk; if by accident the hoe should be struck 
•■against it, the only way of saving the plant is to cut out 
the injured piece, the fresh cut will then probably dry 
and the plant be none the worse; a bruise, on the con¬ 
trary, gradually causes the whole trunk to become soft 
and putrid. A considerable quantity of ordinary ma¬ 
nure or of guano is required to bring the plants to per¬ 
fection. 
Having by these means obtained by the end of May 
or June well-grown cactus plants, consisting of four or 
five branches, springing from each trunk with a good 
•supply of rich dark-green leaves ; when the fleshy spines 
and prickles have fallen from them, the plantation is 
ready to receive the insect. The state of the weather 
during the growth of the “ madres,” and the tempera¬ 
ture at the time of spawning, has a great effect upon 
the amount of seedlings produced. The mothers are 
put into small bags made of a material called “renque” 
(a sort of gauze), about eight or nine inches long, and 
■shaped somewhat like a sausage, in each of which is put 
about a table-spoonful of “ madre,” it is then hung over 
a leaf in the cochineal plantation. The young, as they 
are born, walk out of the bag on to the cactus, and 
spread over the surface of the leaf. The quantity of in¬ 
sects spawned in a given time will vary according to the 
heat of the weather and the age of the “ madres ” : with 
fresh “ madres,” and in warm weather, a couple of hours 
will be enough to cover the leaf sufficiently; with old 
* ‘madres,” and in cool weather, the bags may be left on the 
leaves as long as thirty hours, or even two days ; the leaf, 
on removing the bags, should be moderately and evenly 
•covered with insects. If the insect is allowed to spawn 
too freely on each leaf the crop will be damaged in quality, 
and if the bags are removed too soon the crops will be 
deficient in quantity. The obtaining of a fair average 
number of insects on each leaf is therefore one of the 
most important points to be looked to in the cultivation 
of cochineal, and one which requires experience and 
constant supervision on the part of the grower. 
Another way of conveying the spawn to the leaves 
is the following: the “ madres ” are spread on shallow 
trays about 4 or 5 inches long and 2£ inches wide; 
•some entirely made of wood, others a framework of 
wood with a bottom of thin canvas, nailed on so as to 
prevent the escape of the young. The “ madres ” being- 
laid thinly over the surface, so as to lie closely side by 
:side, but not one over the other; pieces of rag, about 
half a yard long by five inches wide, are then spread 
over the -whole surface of the tray; in a short time 
these become covered on the under side with the young 
insects, and being removed are conveyed to the planta¬ 
tion in baskets; they are one by one pinned on to the 
leaves, on which the young insects soon fix themselves; 
fresh rags are then laid over the “ madres ” to be again 
■covered with the young. It is found that white rags are 
hest, iilack and dark colours are disliked by the insect. 
'The same difficulty as to the number of insects conveyed 
to each leaf, exists in this method of planting as well as 
in the former, with- a new element of difficulty, viz., 
that the production of the young varies with the amount 
-of light admitted into the room. To ensure the greatest 
quantity of spawm in the shortest time, it is therefore 
necessary to have a skylight to the room, and it is not 
improbable that the preference for wiiite rags is owing 
to their admitting more light to the insect. After pin¬ 
ning the rags to the leaves they are left for a longer or 
shorter time, according to the state of the w r eather : in 
fine and v r arm weather twenty-four. hours suffice, but 
when the weather is cold and damp they are not re¬ 
moved for three, four, or more days. In the winter 
^season the rags used formerly to be left upon the plants j 
until the time for gathering the crops, in order to pro¬ 
tect the young insects from the inclemency of the 
weather, but experience has showm that this" object is 
better obtained by other means. It may be as well to 
mention here, that for a winter crop the insects are 
allowed to spawn far more copiously on each leaf than 
in summer, as the cold, rain and winds of that season 
destroy a great many. 
When the “madres” have exhausted their powers, 
which occurs sooner or later, according to the tempera¬ 
ture to which they are exposed, and which is known by 
the young being born black instead of white, they are 
collected from the bags or trays in w r hich they have been 
spawning, and put into an oven for drying. The young 
insect takes more or less time in coming to maturity, 
according to the weather. Those planted in June are 
often ready to be gathered in seventy days, or even ear¬ 
lier, whereas those planted in October and November 
are not ripe till late in February or early in March. 
Thoso planted in the latter season, which are intended 
exclusively to serve as “ madres,” are allowed to ripen 
thoroughly before they are gathered, and are not taken 
off the plant until there are some young to be seen 
crawling over the leaves. On the other hand, the cochi¬ 
neal planted in March or April for “madres” spawms 
with such astonishing rapidity in June or July, under 
the influence of the heat of those months, that, as soon 
as the first leaf in a plantation which has taken three or 
four days to cover with insects, is seen to have young 
upon it, the whole is gathered, for even those that re¬ 
quire some hours before arriving at maturity will ripen 
in warm weather. 
The cochineal planted in June and July being the 
great crop of the year, prepared principally for drying 
at once into silver cochineal, should be gathered before 
it commences to spawn. Thus during August and Sep¬ 
tember the grower watches for the first symptoms of 
spawning, and as soon as they appear, not a moment 
is lost in proceeding to immediate gathering, for the 
weather being then quite as warm and bright as in 
June, the same rapidity in ripening is observable, and 
the loss of weight is serious if the spawning is allowed 
to proceed for even a few hours. The proper manner of 
gathering varies according to the object to which the 
plants are devoted; but, as a general rule, the leaves on 
which the bags are placed are sharply cut off with a 
knife, close to the branches, and the cochineal swept off 
them into closely woven broad baskets. After the leaves 
are all cut off and swept they are dropped into the ridges, 
tchere they are left; another set of gatherers carefully 
scrape off the insects which have passed into the branches 
or trunk of the plant; to leave even one or two insects 
on these branches is fatal to the health of the plant, as 
they spawn, most probably in hidden spots, and shortly 
afterwards the strength of the branches, which is re¬ 
quired to produce new leaves for the ensuing year, is 
absorbed by the surreptitious growth of insects, and this 
is fatal to the future crop. To prevent any young in¬ 
sects remaining on the plants after gathering, the 
branches are swept several times every two or three 
days. By this means such as may escape the first or 
second sweeping, having both grown and changed their 
position, will be removed on the third or fourth appli¬ 
cation of the broom. A small insect grows in a few 
weeks into a “madre,” and will propagate several 
hundreds of young which will eventually much weaken 
the plant. The leaves cut off at the gathering of the 
crop, are now chopped up into small pieces and dug 
into the ground to lighten it, and by their fermenta¬ 
tion they warm the roots of the plant, and act as ex¬ 
cellent manure; guano is also applied freely. It is 
found that as much as 15 quintals of guano per H acres 
can be applied with benefit to the cochineal; a grower at 
Grand Canary used as much as 25 quintals on one occa¬ 
sion, and was rewarded by a return of from 11 to 12 
quintals of cochineal, or nearly double the average crop. 
