In the intendancy of Oaxaca, the Indians do not all follow the same method in rearing the cochineal, which M. Thicry do Menouvillc saw practised in his rapid pas sage through San Juan del 12c, San Antonio, and Qui catlan. The Indians of the district of Soma and %mint Ian establish their nopaleries on the slope of mountains, or in ravines, two or three 1•agues distant from Bich vil lages. They plant the nopals, after cutting and burn ing the trees which covered the ground. If they con tinue to clean the ground twice a year, the young plants are able to maintain the cochineal in the third year. For this purpose, the proprietor of a nopalery purchases, in the months of April or May, branches or joints of the Tuna de Castilla, laden with small cochineals, (senzilla) recently hatched. These branches, destitute of roots, and separated from the trunks, preserve their juice for several months. They are sold for about three francs the hundred in the market of Oaxaca. The Indians preserve the semilla of the cochineal for tu%ent) days in caverns, or in the interior of their huts, and alter this period they expose the young coccus to the open air. The branches to which the insect is attached, are sus pended under a shed covered with a straw roof. The growth of the cochineal is so rapid, that even in the months of August and September, we find mothers al ready big before the young are yet hatched. These mother cochineals are placed in nests, made of a species of tillandsia, called pa.rtle. They are carried in these nests two or three leagues from the village, and ells trihuted in the nopaleries, where the young plants receive the semilla. The laying of the mother-cochineal lasts from thirteen to fifteen days. If the situation of the plan tation is not very elevated, the first harvest may be ex pected in less than four months. It is observed. that in a climate more cold than temperate, the colour of the cochineal is equally beautiful, but that the harvest is much later. Lt the plain, the mother cochineals grow to a greater size, but they meet with more enemies in the innumerable quantity of insects, (.zicaritas, pcmios, aradores, a•ujas, armadillos, culcbritas.) lizards, rats. and birds, by which they are devoured. Much care is neces sary in cleaning the branches of the nupals. The he Indian women make use of a squirrel or stag's tail for that pur pose ; they squat down for hours together beside one plant ; and notwithstanding the excessive price of the cochineal, it is to be doubted if this cultivation would be profitable, in countries where the time and labour of man might be turned to account. At Sola, where very cold rains occasionally fall, and where it even frequently freezes in the month of January, the natives preserve the young cochineals, by covering the nopals with rush mats. The price of the semilla of gram fins, which generally does not amount to more than five francs per pound, fre quently rises there to 13 and 20.
In several districts of the province of Oaxaca, they have three cochineal harvests in the year, of which the first (that which gives the semilla) is not lucrative, be cause the mother preserves for a very short time the colouring juice, if she dies naturally after hfiving laid. This first harvest furnishes the grana de /iaxtle, or nest cochineal, so called because the mothers after laying are found in the same nests which have been suspended to the nopals. Near the town of Oaxaca, the cochineal is sown in the month of August ; but in the districts of Chontale, this operation does not take place till the month of October ; and on the coldest table lands not even till the months of November and December.
The cotton or wild cochineal which gets into the no paleries, and the male of which, according to the obser vation of Mr Alzate, is not much smaller than the male of the mealy or tine cochineal, does much injury to the nopals ; and accordingly the Indians kill it wherever they find it, though the colour which it yields is very solid and very beautiful. It appears that not only the
fruits, but also the green branches of several species of cactus, will dye cotton violet and red, and that the colour of the cochineal is not entirely owing to a process of animalization of the vegetable juices in the body of the insect.
At Nexapa, they reckon that in good years, one pound of semilla of mealy cochineal placed on nopals in the month of October, in the month of January yields a har vest of 12 pounds of mother-cochineals, leaving sufficient semilla on the plant, that is to say, beginning the harvest only when the mothers have already produced the half of their young. This new semilla again produces till the mouth of May 36 pounds. At Zimatlan and other villages of and Xicayan, they searceh• reap more than three or four times the quantity of cochineal sow n. if the south wind, which is very pernicious to the growth of the insect, has not blown long, and the cochi neal is not mixed with tlasole, that is to say, with the spoils of the winged males, it loses only two-thirds of its weight when dried in the sun.
The fine and the wild kinds of cochineal appear to contain more of the colouring principle in temperate climates, especially in regions where the mean tem• perature of the air is 64° and 68° of Fahrenheit. !lulu boldt found the wild cochineal in abundance in the most opposite climates, in the mountains of Riobamba, at 9513 feet English of absolute elevation, and in the plains of the province of Jaen de Bracomaros, tinder a burn ing sky, between the villages of Tomependa and Cha maya.
Around the town of Oaxaca, and especially near Ocot lan, there are plantations (haciendas) which contain from 50 to 60,000, planted in lines like pites or magueys de fiulque. The greatest part of the cochineal which is employed in commerce is, however, produced in small nopalcries belonging to Indian: of extreme poverty. The nopal is seldom allowed to grow higher than 47 inches, in order that it may be the more easily cleared of the in sects which devour the cochineal. The varieties of the cactus which are roughest and most prickly are even preferred, because these arms serve to protect the cochi neal from flying insects ; and the flower and fruit are carefully cut, to prevent these insects from depositing their eggs in them.
The Indians who cultivate the cochineal, and who go by the name of Xopaleros, especially those who live round the town of Oaxaca, follow a very ancient and a very extraordinary practice, that of making the cochineal travel. In that part of the torrid zone, it rains in the plains and rallies from May to October, while in the chain of neighbouring mountains, called Sierra do Iste pcje, the rains are only frequent from December to April. In place of preserving the insect in the rainy season in the interior of their huts, the Indians place the mother-cochineals, covered with palm-leaves, by beds, in baskets made of very flexible claspers. These baskets (canastos) are carried by the Indians on their backs as quickly as possible to the mountains of Istcpeje, above the village of Santa Catalina, at nine leagues distance from Oaxaca. The mother-cochineals produce their young by the way. On opening the canastos, they are found full of young coccus, which are distributed on the nopals of the sierra. They remain there till the month of October, when the rains cease in the lower regions. The Indians then return to the mountains in quest of the cochineal, for the purpose of replacing it in the nopa leries of Oaxaca. The Mexican in this way withdraws the insects from the pernicious effects of the humidity, in the same manner as the Spaniard travels with his merinos from the cold.