CHAPTER VI.

MANUFACTURE OF COCHINEAL BY THE COCCUS CACTI, OR COCHINEAL INSECT.

The cochineal insect is extremely valuable in commerce, as yielding a brilliant red dye, and we may with propriety class it among insect manufactures, because, although its destruction is necessary to obtain the colouring matter, (the actual body of the insect forming the dye,) yet this beautiful colour is elaborated from the food on which it feeds, as honey and wax are elaborated by the bee, or silk by the silkworm. We do not find, it is true, any especial care or effort on the part of the insect in the production of the cochineal, and in this respect it differs from the examples already given; but the rich colour which pervades the body of the insect appears to result simply from the juices of the particular species of cactus on which it feeds. Yet being to us the only means of obtaining the brilliant dye in question, the cochineal insects must be reckoned highly useful, though involuntary, manufacturers.

Cochineal insects are very small, delicate creatures, remarkable for the great difference in the form of the male and female. The former has a slender body, long antennæ, and two large wings; the latter an oval body, without wings, and short antennæ. The mouth in both insects consists of a small conical bill and sucker, adapted for feeding on the juices of vegetables. At first, all the young brood, whether male or female, resemble tiny red tortoises, and are busily engaged in feeding on the stems and leaves of plants, which they pierce with their sharp beaks so as to do much injury. During this active period of their lives the insects continue to increase in size, but the period soon arrives when they undergo a transformation. All the insects fix themselves firmly to plants or stems, and the male soon appears in his new dress as a fly, while the female merely changes her skin, and remains fixed to the bark, which she gradually becomes so nearly like, that it is difficult to distinguish her. She now lays her eggs, which are very numerous, and which she accumulates beneath her body; but, at the same time, she gradually dwindles in size until her body becomes a mere pellicle or thin membrane enclosing the brood. The mother then dies, but her dried body remains as a sort of shell or cocoon for the protection of her young. When these are hatched, they soon make their way from beneath the scaly covering, and commence feeding vigorously on the juices of the plant.

To the persevering exertions of a French gentleman, M. Thierry de Menonville, it was owing that the culture of the cochineal became known in the West India islands. This gentleman left Port au Prince, in St. Domingo, in January 1777, with the express object of procuring some living cochineal insects of the finest sort from Mexico, and bringing them for propagation in the French West India islands; an enterprise for the expense of which the French government had allotted the sum of four thousand livres. Owing to the jealousy of the Spanish government, there was great difficulty in penetrating as far as the cochineal districts, and M. Thierry pursued a plan to effect his object which cannot be considered justifiable, since it involved a departure from truth. At first he feigned ill health, and obtained permission to use the baths of the river Magdalena; but, instead of going thither, he proceeded as fast as possible in the direction of the desired district, where he was successful in getting some plants laden with cochineal, as a pretended remedy for gout. From his account of the expedition we gather the following particulars.

After numerous fatigues and dangers he at length saw himself near the end of his journey, and approached Guaxaca. At a village, within a short distance of that place, he saw, for the first time in his life, and with the utmost pleasure, the fine cochineal feeding on the nopal, or cactus, which it frequents. He saw a garden full of nopals, and not doubting but that they were laden with cochineal insects, he sprang from his horse, and, under pretence of adjusting his stirrups, entered into conversation with the Indian proprietor of the garden. He asked him with apparent indifference what was the use of those plants, and was answered, that they were for the cultivation of grana. Feigning surprise, de Menonville asked to be permitted to see this grana, and he was really astonished when the insect was brought to him, for he had supposed it red, and it was in fact covered with a white powder. “My doubts,” he says, “were tormenting, but I suddenly thought of the expedient of crushing one upon white paper, when what did I see?—the true purple of kings!” Full of delight and anticipation, the traveller now set forward towards the spot where he might hope to make himself acquainted with the culture of the precious insect, and purchase a store for transportation.

Nothing could be more beautiful than the situation of Guaxaca, capital of the province of that name. Standing in the midst of fertile and extensive plains, at the foot of a majestic mountain range, and watered by a fine and noble river, this city is richly supplied with corn and fruits of all kinds, at the same time that its environs supply a most favourable site for the culture of the cochineal. The air, continually refreshed by easterly breezes in the morning, and westerly in the evening, is pure and delicious, like that of a May morning. Indeed, our traveller asserts, that for magnificence of site, beauty of decoration, excellence of soil, fine temperature, and abundance of European and American fruits succeeding each other without intermission, nothing is wanting to Guaxaca to make it an enchanting spot, but an active and industrious people, to avail themselves of its natural advantages.

At Guaxaca de Menonville acted with caution, and did not betray any undue anxiety respecting the cochineals. Yet he provided himself with chests large enough for their conveyance together with the plants on which they fed. Under pretence of buying flowers, he went into a garden where there was a beautiful nopalerie, and while they were making up the bouquet he had ordered, he took the opportunity of observing the arrangement of the nopals. They were planted four feet apart in lines, the lines being six feet asunder. The nopalerie belonged to a negro, and it was here that a purchase might in all probability be effected. On another occasion, therefore, de Menonville took two Indian servants, each bearing a large hamper, and repaired very early in the morning to the garden. He left his servants at the entrance, and entered alone. The negro proprietor had scarcely risen, but he came forward in a frank and agreeable manner. De Menonville then told him, that being a physician, he was anxious to make an ointment of his own invention for the cure of gout, and for this purpose he wished to purchase some branches of nopals laden with cochineal, for which he was willing to pay whatever the owner should demand, provided he might make his own selection of the branches suitable to his purpose. The Indian willingly complied, and accordingly the hampers were brought in, and eight fine branches, each two feet high and so loaded with cochineals as to be quite white, were speedily cut, packed, and covered with cloths. He then asked him how much he had to pay; the negro answered that he could not possibly sell them for less than two reals. Our traveller fully believed him, and would have purchased them, if necessary, at a much larger sum. That the negro might not think him dissatisfied with the bargain, he gave him a piaster (value eight reals), telling him he had no change, and therefore he should give him the rest to drink his health. The good old negro rubbed his eyes, thinking he was still dreaming, and then loaded de Menonville with thanks, while the latter brought in his two Indians, gave them the hampers to carry, and then set off as fast as possible. “My heart,” he says, “beat quickly, for it seemed to me that I had carried off the golden fleece, but might yet be pursued by the furious dragon who kept guard over it. All along the road I kept saying, ‘At last they are in my power;’ and I could willingly have sung for joy if I had not been afraid of being heard. I arrived at my inn quite out of breath, without having met a single person in the streets; it was about sunrise; no one was awake in the house, and I crept quietly to my room, where I arranged my nopals, with inexpressible delight, in the caskets I had purchased for that purpose.”

COCHINEAL CACTUS. ]

After innumerable difficulties and dangers this traveller reached St. Domingo in safety, but with only a small part of his insects living. These, however, he was successful in rearing and multiplying until a flourishing nopalerie was established. He found, by experience, that five or six species of cactus opuntia will nourish these insects, but that some are far more valuable than others. He also proved that the colours of the flowers and fruit of the plants, whether red, violet, yellow, or white, did not in any way affect the colour of the cochineal, nor indicate the greater or less aptitude of the plant to nourish the insect. The thorny species were less convenient on account of the pain and annoyance to the hands of those who managed the nursery; but in some of these the younger branches were nearly free from prickles.

The terms nopalerie for the nursery, and nopal for the plant, are preserved among the French cultivators of cochineal, in remembrance of the Mexican origin of such nurseries. The enclosure should be secured by walls or a quick hedge; not from the fear that any animal will prey upon the plants, since no large quadruped is known to have a taste for them; but simply to keep out such as might by accident or fear be driven through the grounds, and trample on and destroy the crop.

An acre, or an acre and a half of land, when planted with nopals, is sufficient to keep one Indian well employed during six months of the year. The plants should be so situated as to receive the full influence of the morning sun, which is of great consequence to the welfare of the cochineal. Every part of the ground should be as neat as a well-kept garden, and every injurious insect watched for and destroyed. The spider alone is permitted to weave her nets in peace, and for this reason: she is the great enemy of many insects which injuriously affect the cochineals, while she herself does not touch one of them. The nopal requires a good soil, where the drainage is excellent. Shelter from the wind, and exposure to the sun, are the two great requisites, and with this there must be a tolerably settled climate, otherwise the harvest will be uncertain.

When in a favourable situation, the nopal requires less care and cultivation than almost any other plant: it would even appear that the less it is meddled with the better it succeeds. As soon as a nursery ground is laid out, cleaned, and drained, planting commences, the season being the dry period just before the spring rains. Alleys or paths are marked out, forming squares: parallel lines are drawn across these squares north and south. Here the nopals are planted at two feet distance from each other, being clean cuttings from the old plant, and not torn or broken from it. The Indians of Guaxaca plant two or three cuttings in each hole, lest any accident should prevent one from striking. Eighteen months afterwards the plants will be in a state to nourish the cochineal.

The sowing of cochineal, as it is called, is performed at day-break, the insects being conveyed from the old plants and attached to the new. For this purpose they are placed in little nests made by the natives, and attached with thorns to the leaves of the nopal. Here they quickly multiply to an astonishing extent. A nopalerie is in perfection six years, after which the insects are taken away and the plants cut down.

The cochineal harvest takes place every year as soon as the young insects begin to run about. Assembling his friends, old and young, the owner of the cochineal ground enters it at break of day with a crowd of men, women, and children, provided with knives six inches long and two wide, and also with dishes and with baskets. The blade of the knife is rounded at the top, so as to injure neither the insect nor the plant; this is passed gently between the skin of the nopal and the clusters of cochineals with which it is covered, causing the latter to fall into the dish or basket, which the left hand holds ready to receive them. A child of ten years old may thus gather ten pounds of insects in a day, which being killed and dried will yield about three pounds and a half of cochineal. The best method of killing the insects is by pouring boiling water on them, and allowing it to remain one, two, or three minutes. The water is preserved, as it necessarily has some of the colouring matter of the insects; the latter are spread out to dry in the sun and wind, being turned occasionally by hand. Ten persons, it is said, can thus prepare two hundred pounds of cochineal in two days. Such is the history given by de Menonville himself, in his volumes entitled ‘Voyage à Guaxaca.’ Baron Humboldt, describing the management of cochineals in this and in other parts of South America, gives some additional particulars. He ascertained that in a colder climate, the colour of the cochineal is equally fine, but the harvests are more uncertain. Plains or valleys are generally more favourable to the rapid increase of the cochineals than elevated ground, but such places also abound in insect enemies, and in lizards, rats, and birds, which devour the crop. Great care is required in clearing all the joints of the nopals: for this purpose Indian women use a squirrel’s or a stag’s tail, and will sit for hours crouched near a single plant. Notwithstanding the high price of cochineal, it is very doubtful whether the trade would answer in any country where labour is more valuable. In some parts of Guaxaca (called by Humboldt Oaxaca), they obtain three harvests of cochineal in the year, the first being the least lucrative, because the bodies of the insects yield very little colouring matter when they die naturally, and this is the case at the first harvest, when they have just brought forth their young. Many of the negro proprietors of nopaleries, especially those in the neighbourhood of Oaxaca, have a very ancient and singular custom of making their cochineals emigrate during the rainy season. As the Spaniard causes his flocks of merinos to emigrate on the approach of cold, so do these negroes send away their crop during a season which might prove fatal to them. The insects are packed in hampers, and carried as quickly as possible, on the backs of negroes, to a place nine leagues distant from the town, not so heavily visited with rain. Here they distribute them on the nopals, and keep them there till the month of October, when they return with their freight, and replace it in the nopaleries of Oaxaca.

The plantations of cochineal cultivated by M. Thierry, at St. Domingo, were so successful that in 1789 there were more than four thousand plants in a single nopalerie, and the produce was ascertained by chemists to be quite equal to that of Mexico; but at the time of the French Revolution, the political troubles of St. Domingo caused the destruction of the plantations. Cochineal has been cultivated with some success in several of the British West India islands. Thus the Rev. L. Guilding, writing a few years ago to Dr. Hooker, says, “I possess a considerable nursery of this cactus, inhabited by thousands of the true Coccus cacti, and I do not despair of being able to send to the Society of Arts a large quantity of dried insects before the termination of the present year.”

So important was the acquisition of this insect to the East India Company, that they offered a reward of six thousand pounds to any one who should introduce it into India, where hitherto the Company had only succeeded in procuring from Brazil the wild kind producing the sylvestre cochineal, which is of inferior value. The true cochineal insect, and the cactus on which it feeds, are said to have been of late years successfully introduced into Spain and the French colony of Algiers, and now exist in the stores of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and also in those of King Leopold at Claremont.

Stephens, in his Travels in Central America, does not omit to notice the cultivation of this insect, which was carried on extensively in the neighbourhood of the ruined city of La Antigua Guatimala. “Emerging from the city,” he says, “we entered the open plain, shut in by mountains, and cultivated to their base with cochineal. At about a mile’s distance we turned into the hacienda of Señor Vidaury. In the yard were four oxen grinding sugar-cane, and behind was his nopal or cochineal plantation, one of the largest in the Antigua. The plant is a species of cactus, set out in rows like Indian corn, and, at the time I speak of, it was about four feet high. On every leaf was pinned with a thorn a piece of cane, in the hollow of which were thirty or forty insects. These insects cannot move, but breed, and the young crawl out and fasten upon the leaf. When they have once fixed, they never move; a light film gathers over them, and as they feed, the leaves become mildewed and white. At the end of the dry season some of the leaves are cut off and hung up in a storehouse for seed, the insects are brushed off from the rest and dried, and are then sent to minister to the luxuries and elegancies of civilized life, and enliven with their bright colours the salons of London, Paris, and St. Louis in Missouri. The crop is valuable, but uncertain, as an early rain may destroy it, and sometimes all the workmen are taken away for soldiers at the moment when they are most needed for its culture. The situation was ravishingly beautiful, at the base and under the shade of the Volcano de Agua, and the view was bounded on all sides by mountains of perpetual green; the morning air was soft and balmy, but pure and refreshing. With good government and good laws, and one’s friends around, I never saw a more beautiful spot on which man could desire to pass his allotted time on earth.”

1. BRANCH COVERED WITH LAC. 2. SMALL TWIG LADEN WITH LAC. 3. PORTION OF LAC (magnified). 4, 5, 6. LAC INSECT IN ITS SEVERAL FORMS. ]