CULTURE  OF  COCHINEAL  IN  THE  CANARY  ISLANDS.  439 
A  more  simple  way  of  killing  the  insects,  is  to  fill  clay  boxes 
holding  about  twelve  pounds,  and  close  them  tightly  for  twenty- 
four  hours.  Twice  the  time  is  requisite  when  the  boxes  are 
smaller  or  only  half-filled.  The  only  objection  to  this  method  is, 
that  the'drying  is  difficult  and  tedious,  requiring  artificial  heat. 
Three  pounds  and  a  quarter  of  living  insects  yield  one  pound 
of  cochineal.  Before  being  sold,  it  is  sifted  through  a  hair  sieve 
in  order  to  remove  the  small  white  pollen  (?)  which  adheres  to 
them.  Nevertheless,  the  insects  are  whitish-grey  when  dry,  so 
that  they  are  known  in  commerce  by  the  name  of  silver  cochineal, 
cochinella  jaspeda.    The  pound  costs  sixteen  reals. 
The  productiveness  of  these  insects  is  very  great.  The  mother- 
insects  are  kept  in  the  boxes  fourteen  or  twenty-one  days,  and 
the  rags  are  removed  full  of  young  once  or  twice  daily,  so  that 
the  number  of  young  that  a  female  may  produce  during  twenty- 
four  days  and  without  food,  amounts  to  a  million. 
The  Canary  cochineal  is  the  next  best  to  the  Honduras. 
Women  are  exclusively  engaged  in  attending  to  the  cochineal 
culture.  When  the  season  admits  of  breeding  the  insects  early, 
the  second  brood  is  placed  on  the  leaves  immediately  after  the 
first.  When  the  winter  rains  are  late,  a  third  crop  may  be  col- 
lected, at  least  in  the  coast  district,  for  there  the  insects  do  not 
die  in  December,  as  they  do  in  the  colder  regions  of  the  mediania. 
The  nopal  must  be  kept  free  from  rats  and  lizards  as  well  as 
birds.*  The  produce  of  an  acre  of  good  land  planted  with  nopal, 
amounts  annually  to  500  pounds  of  dry  cochineal.  In  dry  land, 
the  crop  varies  between  50  and  500  pounds. 
It  would  be  very  serviceable  to  preserve  the  insects  through 
the  winter  in  the  mediania  district,  and  thus  remove  the  necessi- 
ty of  bringing  mother-insects  every  year  from  the  coast  district. 
Such  a  protection  might  be  easily  effected,  by  covering  the  nopal 
fields  with  a  cane  roofing.  The  following  table  shows  the  in- 
creased produce  and  exportation  of  cochineal  from  the 
Canaries ; — 
*  Fowls  are  very  fond  of  the  cochineal  insects,  and  find  out  the  plan- 
tations very  readily.  To  prevent  their  depredations,  the  inhabitants,  who 
are  compelled  to  feed  the  fowls  of  the  nobility,  tie  them  by  the  leg  during 
the  day. 
