The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-06-26
A COCHINEAL BUG RANCH.
VISIT TO A PLANTATION IN THE
GUATEMALAN REPUBLIC.
Curious Methods of CuItiyating th C
Insects-70.000 in n wound color
ing Matter which They Produce

lO l1olIduOSd VI ODuuJlh
cochin ellifera includes thousand acres
and the modus operandi of cultivating
the insect is most curious. They require
about the same care that is ordinarily
bestowed upon the silkworms, and prob
ably the occupation is not more loath
some among crawling than wriggling
creatures. During the last days of May,
Immediately before the annual rains be
gin, great branches Of cacti covered with
the insects are cut off and stored in
building erected Tor the purpose to pro
tect them from the weather. At the
close of the wet season about the mid
die of October) tie plantations are re-
stocked from these supplies by suspend
ing little nests made of henquin, jute,
magney or any soft, woody fiber, upon
the spines of the growing nopal, each
nest containing dozen female insects.
Warmed by the tropic sun they soon emerge
from their semi comatose condition and
begin to lay eggs with marvellous rapid
ity, each female producing more tnan
thousand young. These spread over
the plants with creditible celebrity. The
new crop of females attaching themselves
to the leaves and Immediately swelling
to great size, adhering so closely to the
nopal as to become almost part of it
resembling vegetable excresences rather
than animated insects. In this condi-
ton they are gathered for cochineal,
none but females being valuable for
commercial purposes The males are
comparatively few in number, not more
than one to hundred and fifty females,
and are of no use for coloring material ;
but, as in higher orders of existence, es
cape most of the pains and perils of life.
While the males are left to disport them
selves undisturbed, the females are
picked off with blunt knife, collected
into baskets and killed by dipping into
boiling water or baking Thorn in heated
ovens or on plates of hot iron.
The first crop is gathered about the
middle of December, and subsequently
several more of as many successive gen
erations. These tiny scions of the numer-
GUS family coceidae are in the form of
rounded scales, the body covered with
deep, transverse wrinkles, bristly on the
posterior part, with abdomen of dark
mulberry color, and short black legs.
The mail has two erect wings, the female
none. An expert laborer can pick only
about two ounces of cochineal in day.
These lose at least two thirds of their
weight IN the process of drying, and as
it requires not less than seventy thousand
of them to weigh pound, and the aver
age retail price of the commodity when
arrived in this country is only seventy
cents per pound, it will be seen that the
cochineal business is by no means q sine
cure. When the living insects have been
immersed in boiling water, they turn to
reddish brown, losing much of the white
powder with which the wrinkles of their
body arc loaded. When dried in an
oven they retain this, and then their
color is gray, but when killed on hot iron
they become black. This is the cause
of the varieties known in the market as
"silver grains" ''blacl1 grains" and
'foxy," the latter, killed by boiler water,
being preferred.
Occasionally bug distemper breaks
out and devastates entire estates, as in
Guatemala few years ago, when the
haciendados were obliged to clear out the
old stock, root and branch, and begin
anew. The coecus are also fed upon by
| birds, mice, and the Larvae OF other in.
/ sects-thc last named destroyer sucking
out the bodies and leaving only the empty
skins.
The coloring principle which causes
these tiny creatures to give crimson hue
to watery infusions has been separated
by chemists, who have given it the name
of cochiniline. 1t is brilliant, purplish
red, very soluble in water or alcohol,
but not soluble in ether: and is obtained
by macerating the dried insects in ether,
treating the residue in alcohol and separ-
ating 1t. Next it is purified from ac-
mpanying fatty matters by again dis
solving in alcohol, after which the ad-
dition of a little sulphuric acid will cause
it in a few days to be precipi.
tated. The coloring matter is thrown
down by different metallic salts
those of zinc, bismuth, iron, nickel and
tin-and thus produces precipitates OF
brilliant colors. BY means Of the chlor.
ide and nitrate of tin, the bases Of tho
splendid crimson and scarlet dyes are
obtained, to which the great value Of
cochincal is chiefly due. The best Of
those pigments called "lakes" are made
by introducing freshly prepared gelati
nous alumina into the dec0ctiOn OF
cochineal. Millions of pounds of candy
and confectionery are annually colored
with powdered cochineal--a not very
appetizing circumstance when the fact.
are considered.
The high price of this coloring matter
has led to the substitution of this article
in diving, lac and madden having SUI per
seeded the cOceus TO great extent, Va
rious articles are used in the adultera
ton of cochineal, and "the tricks of the
trade" rival the pine ham, sawdust gin
ger and wooden nutmeg, industry
Powdered taic or carbonic of lead, tied
in bag and shaken with the insects ad
heres to their wrinklcd bodies and
greatly increases the weight. Grains of
a substance prepared from colorcd dough
and clay have been manufactured b!
enterprising Frenchmen to precisely
initiate dried coecus and palmcd oil
From the remotest periods of antiquity
these bark lice have wed with the roya
purple of imperial Tyre in aiiording ma
terial for the dyer. The ancient lie
brews used them, the Egyptians ant
other eastern nations. Among Othe
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