AMjin.ri;m3.RM'}  Cochineal  Production  in  Cent.  America.  31 
when  they  are  sufficiently  covered  with  the  young  animal,  called 
<peojillia,  to  remove  and  attach  them  to  other  rows  of  cactus.  This 
may  be  done  once  every  day,  if  the  weather  is  fine  ;  but  if  it  is  windy 
and  cold,  they  have  often  to  remain  three  or  four  days  without  mov- 
ing, for  the  wind  blows  away  the  insects  as  they  creep  out  of  the  bag, 
and  prevents  them  from  attaching  themselves  to  the  leaves.  The 
insect  does  not  breed  so  fast  if  the  weather  is  chilly,  and  a  large  por- 
tion is  often  killed  on  the  leaves  ;  even  a  heavy  dew  will  destroy 
many  at  the  first  stage.  In  the  October  seeding  in  Amatitlan,  when 
it  is  never  required  to  load  the  plant,  the  weather  being  fine,  and  the 
mother  cochineal  in  a  thriving  state,  the  bags  may  often  be  shifted 
ten  or  twelve  times  before  it  has  done  breeding;  but  if  the  weather 
be  at  all  unfavorable,  or  the  mother  cochineal  in  a  sickly  state,  or  too 
soon  or  too  late  gathered,  it  cannot  be  shifted  nearly  so  often. 
When  the  mother  cochineal  has  done  breeding,  or  when  the  young 
insect  begins  to  be  sickly  and  of  a  dark  red  color,  the  bags  are  taken 
off,  and  their  contents  shaken  out  and  dried  in  the  sun  ;  and  when 
sifted,  they  form  what  is  denominated  in  the  country  zaceatilla,  and 
in  England  "  black  cochineal,"  which  always  fetches  a  higher  price 
than  the  silver  cochineal,  the  name  given  to  it  when  the  insect  is  dried 
before  commencing  to  breed.  During  the  first  stage  of  its  growth,  as 
already  remarked,  the  young  insect  is  very  easily  injured  ;  but  when 
about  ten  days  old,  it  is  not  nearly  so  easily  destroyed.  Still,  as 
heavy  showers  of  rain  sometimes  occur  in  October,  it  is  nothing  rare 
for  the  cochineal  grower  to  find  nearly  all  his  labor  and  outlay  lost, 
and  a  great  part  of  his  crop  destroyed  in  a  few  minutes ;  but  when 
such  misfortunes  occur,  all  the  growers  suffer  nearly  equally,  conse- 
quently the  price  is  enhanced,  and  the  loss  is  in  some  degree  compen- 
sated by  the  increased  value  of  what  remains.  In  Amatitlan,  such 
-accidents  only  occur  to  the  first  crop,  seeded  in  October,  the  greater 
part  of  the  produce  of  which  is  always  used  for  seeding  the  cochineal 
•estates  in  old  Guatemala  in  the  month  of  January,  and,  when  the 
crop  is  not  large,  fetches  a  much  higher  price  than  it  would  be  worth 
if  dried  for  exportation.  In  about  twenty  days  after  the  young  in- 
sect has  attached  itself  to  the  leaf,  it  changes  its  skin,  which  is  called 
the  first  muda  (change  or  transformation)  ;  and  in  about  a  month 
more  it  again  undergoes  the  same  process,  at  each  of  which  periods 
it  slightly  shifts  its  position  on  the  leaf.  At  the  time  of  the  second 
change  the  male  makes  its  appearance  in  the  shape  of  a  very  small 
