CULTURE OF COCHINEAL IN INDIA. 
141 
mination the Court of Directors expressed their concurrence 
in the following terms: — " As the prices which we have ob- 
tained for the Cochineal on sales have not heen such as to re- 
imburse the prime cost and charges, our sole reason for con- 
tinuing to suffer a considerable annual loss upon this article, 
has been with a view to encourage the breeding of the insect, 
until it should become perfectly understood among the na- 
tives." 
In 1807, Mr. William Webbe, of the Madras Civil Estab- 
lishment, suggested through Dr. Anderson to the Governor 
in Council, the expediency of advertising a reward for the in- 
troduction of the Grana Fina, or real Mexican Cochineal, into 
India. The Court of Directors concurred in the reward of- 
fered by the Indian Government of two thousand pounds for 
this purpose.* 
The details which have been given with respect to the Pep- 
per and Cochineal cultivations are important, as showing that, 
even with the greatest energy in individuals, and the utmost 
necessary patronage in the Government, success is unattaina- 
ble; unless equal precaution be taken with every part of an 
experiment. Here the utmost degree of success was obtained 
that was possible with the materials. The plants succeeded 
perfectly, but it is doubtful whether any of them was the true 
Cochineal-Cactus of Mexico; and, in fact, the Insects (certainly 
the inferior kinds) preferred the Cactus already in India to 
that which had been procured expressly for them, though this 
was found an excellent remedy for scurvy, and a vegetable for 
voyages at sea. The Grana Sylvestre Insect — unfortunately 
the only kind procured — being one-third only of the value of 
the Grana Fina, while the expenses of its cultivation, collec- 
tion, and drying, were necessarily the same; the price also 
paid for the Insect being high, because intended as an encou- 
ragement in the first instance, made this culture, like all ex- 
* Measures which have been pursued by the Court of Directors and the 
Government of India with a view to the introduction of the True Cochi- 
neal Insect into the British Territories in India. — Trans. Asiat. Soc. of 
Calcutta, vol. vi.; Appendix, p, 85. 
