1886 
Foreign gardening, 
GARDEN 
GAUDENS in ALGIERS, 
suburbs ol! this strange, old town 
placed, as they arc, on a northward-facing 
hill, from their cool exposure arc favorably 
situated for gardening. 'J'he want of water 
the great natural dilllculty of the town, an.l 
indeed of the whole province, is overcome 
by a system of irrigation, the supply being 
carried tlirougli aqueduets, some of ancient, 
and others of recent construction. Tlie clim¬ 
ate suits the greater part of wliat are classed 
as sub-tropical plants. 
AVlthlu a mile or two of tlie town, and 
mainly in the northwestern suburb, are 
many gaidcns, old and modern. Here in 
former days the wealthy Arabs had their 
villas, witli gardens of many .acres carefully 
terraced and irrigated. Some of the older 
ones are rich in picturesque groups of Olive 
and Caruba, stately Cypresses, rambling 
Vines and gnarled Pomegranates, whose 
pale gray stems, polished undulating leaves, 
and brilliant llowers are to a northern eye a 
strangely striking picture of plant beauty. 
The liigh garden walls, roughly plastered, 
and origiuaU 3 ' whitened, but now dim and 
gra.y with age, were not liidden bj' groves 
of Orange, Lemon or Sliaddock. Stately 
Bamboos, Cypress or Mj'rtle, are clothed 
with a variety of line rambling plants, of 
which Boz(gainvilJea, Pluriba/jo Ccqiensis, 
Solanum Jagminoides, white .Jasmine, and 
Tea and cluster Boses are peiiiaps the most 
frequent. Hedges arc made of I..antanas; 
Magnolia grandiflora is a very large tree; 
weird Prickly Pears are draped and fes¬ 
tooned with Clernatig cirrhosa; and the white 
Brugmansia rises high and overtops the 
wall, its great, wliite trumpets and large 
leaves borne aloft on a sheaf of straight, 
strong stems. 
Date Palms form groups of majestic beau¬ 
ty ; Rosemary is at home, and is commonly 
used for low hedges and edgings, but is apt 
to ramble away at will into forms of pictur¬ 
esque raggedness. Poinsettias grown as 
eight-feet-higli standards and pruned annu- 
ally with a bill-hook, are a mass of scarlet 
glory at Christmas. Ipommas, crimson and 
blue, and Bignonias ramble, tlirougli trees 
and bushes; Tecoma Australis, cither rain- 
blino- or trained to walls, surprises one by 
its delicate beauty; and Hibiscus of kinds 
are freauent garden plants. In open-air cis¬ 
terns are strong growths of Arums, Nelum- 
biuras and Papyrus. 1,0if wild 
Sometimes a garden encloses a 
dell with a trickle of watei. Heic 
‘I d over tlie arclics the wall space is pan¬ 
elled witli ghi/ed tiles of (Inc design and col¬ 
oring, generally of two or three colors on 
white ground. Tlie railing whicli forms the 
parapet of the gidlery is of wood-work, 
elaborately iilerccd and turned. In such a 
court, a few small Palms in tubs and other 
suitable subjects form delightful pictures of 
combined house and plant beauty. 
Many of the Pi'cnch and also the English 
winter residents who have built villas in the 
lieauliful suburb of Mustapha have wisely 
adopted the Arab’s style of building, which, 
though externallj‘ of extreme simplicity as 
to its main parts,.groups admirably with the 
evergreen trees of tlie country, and with the 
wealth of (lowers that these gardens arc ca¬ 
pable of pi'oducing.—ZoadoM (darde.n. 
will probably be a thick growth of 01 i 
and the wild Arundo Donax, the S <=‘ 
often 30 feet high; then clumps 0 
mollis, and perhaps a ^ 
stemmed Bay, with straigh ^ 
growths shooting from , ‘|j;.g,^aded, may 
dell, damp, sheltered, and 
generally he found a g*^® cultivation, 
conditions being suitable f .^l3ble nia- 
The Arab houses are bull «« ^.gbed 
sonry, plastered and invaua ly 
both inside and out. 11 ..asacre or gal- 
often highly decorated; t e ix ■ e 
lery that gives access to th 1 .j g-mg 
supported by horse-shoe arcl^es sp. 
■ from slender, twisted co um 
A COCHINEAL HACIENDA IN GUATEMALA. 
Cattle ranches, sheep ranches, even chick¬ 
en ranches, arc common enough in the 
United States, but a bug I’anch is indeed a 
curiosity! In this queer couutry the raising 
of hemiiiterous insects of the bark-louse fain- 
ilj‘, notably the Coccus Cacti, or .Spanish co- 
chinilla, is a profitable, if not a pleasant in¬ 
dustry. In this portion of Guatemala vast 
plantations arc devoted to the cultivation of 
the “Indian Fig,” or Nopal, a Cactus, Opunlia 
cochinillifcra, especially for the nourishment 
of bark-lice. Between the altitudes of 3,000 
aud .5,000 feet is the favorite locality for 
cochineal raising, particularly in the vicinity 
of Guatemala la Antigua, the ancient Capital. 
The cochineal hacienda, which we were 
invited to visit, is the property of Senor Don 
Felipe Ortiz de Espanosa, aud lies about six 
miles from the city of Quezaltenango. The 
Espanosa family reside during half the j'ear 
upon it, in the midst of imuumbered millions 
of bugs. Happily the insects are not mi- 
gratorj' in tlieir habits, but cling with re¬ 
markable pertinacity to their Indian Figs, or 
otherwise a residence among them might be 
the reverse of agreeable. 
The hacienda is walled and bastioned like 
the domain of a baron of old, with corner 
towers and loop holes for guns, and shows 
indubitable traces of having withstood many 
revolutionary siege. Upon arriving—ac- 
compauiedbya pleasant party of Castellanos 
from the city, and escorted by the genial 
proprietor-we galloped, according to um 
versal custom, through the one front dooi 
of the casa, directly into its inner court, 
where, amid an indescribable conglomera¬ 
tion of dogs, pigs, goats, burros, and other 
domestic animals, our horses were given ^ 
the care of the servants, and ourselves warmlj 
welcomed bv tlie Senora de Espanosa and 
her bevy of dark-eyed daughters. Be- 
in„. only nine o’clock in the morning, it was, 
r .,.00 too early by some hoiu's for break- 
ffst- but, under theblossomuig trees 
of the garden, coflee 
was 
Between ads 
immediately 
set” by a six-mile usual hour 
consisting of a 
(about one o clock i gpan- 
dozen eleg.an c ’. fruits and sal- 
ladies and gentlemen, and strong, black cof¬ 
fee. At five o’clock came the. inevitable 
chocolate, ivith more pan dulce, cheese and 
wild Iioiiey. Dinner we could not remain 
tor, though pressed to do so, as that meal 
is never partaken earlier than seven in the 
evening, and we were obliged to return to 
the city to meet engagements on the morrow. 
The Espanosa plantation of Opuntia cochiru- 
illifera includes 1,000 acres, and the modus 
operand! of cultivating the insects is most 
curious. They require about the same care 
that is ordinarily bestowed upon .silk-wmrms, 
and probably the occupation is not more 
loatlisome of caring for crawling and wrig¬ 
gling creatures. During the last days of 
May, immediately before the annual rains 
begin, great branches of Opuntla covered 
with insects are cut off and stored in a build¬ 
ing erected for that purpose, to protect them 
from the weather. At the close of the wet 
season (about the middle of October), the 
plantations are restocked from these sup¬ 
plies b)‘ suspending little nests—made of 
henequin, jute, maguey, or any other soft, 
woody fiber—upon the spines of the growing 
Nopal, each nest containing a dozen female 
insects. IVarmed by the tropical sun, they 
soon emerge from their semi-comatose con¬ 
dition and begin to lay eggs with marvelous 
■apidity, each female producing more than 
000 5 'oung. The new crop spreads over 
the plants immediately, the females at once 
swelling to suiqirising size, and attaching 
themselves so closely to the Nopal as to be¬ 
come almost a part of it—resembling vegeta¬ 
ble excrescences rather than animate insects. 
In .this condition they are gathered for 
cochineal, none but the pregnant females 
being valuable for commercial purposes. 
The males are comp.aratively few in number, 
not more than one male to 150 females, and 
are of no use for coloring material; the fe¬ 
males are picked off with a blunt knife and 
killed by dipping in boiling water, or baking 
them in heated rooms or on plates of hot 
iron. It requires not less than 70,000 of 
them to weigh a pound. 
Occasionally a bug distemper breaks out 
aud devastates entire plantations—as in 
Gu.atemala a few years ago, when the liaoi- 
endados were obliged to clear out the old 
stock, root and branch, and begin anew. 
The coccus are also fed upon bj’’ birds, mice 
and the larvm of other insects—the last- 
named destroj'ers- sucking out the body and 
leaving only the emptj‘ skins. 
The high price of cochineal has led to the 
substitution of other articles for dyeing, lac, 
madder and aniline h.aving superseded the 
coccus to a great extent. Various articles 
are used in the adulteration of cochineal, 
and “the tricks of the trade” rival the Yan¬ 
kee pine ham, sawdust ginger and wooden- 
nutmeg industry. Powdered talc, or carboy 
ate of lead, tied in a bag and shaken with 
the insects, adheres to their wrinkled bodies 
and greatly increases their weight. GrauK 
of a substance prepared from clay or col¬ 
ored dough, have been manufactured by en¬ 
terprising Frenchmen to precisely imitate 
coccus, and palmed off upon an unsuspec^ 
ing public. Millions of pounds of ca“dy a“d 
bonbons are annually colored 'vith these 
powdered inseets-a not very 
thought when the facts are considered 1- 
PannieB. Ward inthe'^ Times” 
