Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-04-18
CACTI AND COCHINEAL.
HOW THE INSECTS ARE REARED AND
CULTIVATED IN TENERlFFE.

COl IVA ED IN ltNehIfFe.
Habitati"n aud Feeding Ground of the
Insect from Whose Body Is Extracted
the Well known Crimson Dye-Cars of
the Young Ready for Market.
The general effect Of the landscape Is
that of rocky stcriiIty, and even cultivation
as at present conducted seems 10 add 10
the barren appearances for almost the sole
crop worked in the neIghhurhUud Of the
city i the cactus plant which, with its
prirkly spires and its fat. hulbOus, greasy,
hulgiug loi,'~. i to me the very culmina-
tiun Of ugly W"rthIrssneSs II ltpresents the
appearance Of dwariishness and de
furmty and disease amt distortion. But
out Of disease SprinErth health. and from
even tins m"u~tru>ity wralth has come to
the cuIlINarur. for this plant is the hahita-
ton and feeding ground of the c"chneal.
TAKING CARE or THE Cu,UINEAL.
This is the insect from whose body is ex
trac,rd the rich crimson dye used in color
iug cloths The full grown insect is about
the Siz,. and shape Of u well fed and care
fully reared bed bug Il is wonderfully
prolific The mother is placed ON the
on Inc pant ann Sllt btI'l~VS utI eggs
thereon with "A profu sion that passes COM
rrrhcn>ion. think she would have salts
led even Napoleon. whose idea of the
noblest woman was the one who produced
the most men children for soldiers The
Matching process il brief. and the young
cuchineals swarm out upon the leaf as the
barbarians descrT ded upon Rome.
They have no wings and their legs are
,,,1, g.,
locomOtion Of their lives is comprised
within the area of a few square inches
That they may not be washed off by the
RAIN or shaken off by the wind, each leaf
with its swarming tenants is carefully
wrapped in cotton rag which is pinned
together with thorns. Indeed, the cactus
plants in the season are rather better and
more deCrntly clad than the children.
They are arranged in hills about two
feet apart like corn, and when they are
dressed in their white shirts, each leaf by
itself, the field presents a singular appear
ance. This is still rendered more striking
from the fact that the bugs exude from
their skins kind of fine white powder,
and they themselves and their enveloping
rags and the green cactus, and the people
who work among them, who, by the way,
busted with flour.
BAGGED AND READY FOR MARKET.
When the insects have reached maturity
they are carefully brushed from the plants
into pans and placed in an oven where a
gentle roasting does the business for them,
and then having been picked over and
thus classed into the different grades nc
cording to their respective buggy minds,
sb ~ b.,
When 50 prepared about 1000 of them 90
to the pound. During the last year 40 90
bags of $50 pounds each were shipped from
Santa Cruz. If you are to know how many
distinct individuals this amounts to, here
il is-42O. .OOO. 900 60. There is bugs for you!
The present selling price is about twenty
four cents. How much is that per COchi-
neal' Cipher it yourself My arithmetic
is but finite And yet possibly they have
among themselves Kingdoms and province
palitIes bounded 10y cactus leaf with dis
tinctiOns of buggy rank and jealousies of
buggy peace, with emulatiOns and strug-
giles and loves and hates and pleasures and
disappointments- all ends by being
baked in an oven and sold 7O.UO0 for
twenty-four cents. | dare say there is an
excellent and improving moral 10 be
uId" u soiil'l"" iLoIil ''AI 'HiS' but was
never good at extracting morals.
The price Of coChineal was formerly
much higher than now, being from ninety
cents 10 $i.2O per pound, and then the
business was exceedingly profitable; SO
much 50 that all Teneriffe farmers com
menCed 10 cultivate il, even roofing up
their grape vines and hig trees to plant the
cactus. Bat now chemists have discOv-
cred aniline dyes that are equally good and
much cheaper, and in consequence the
smUtty lit;lc bug has to go "A begging, as it
We're. The industry for this island is a
lost one 1t does not pay. OF course the
Teneriffe Spaniard devotedly believes
chemistry 10 he one of the devilish arts and
invokes upon all retorts and crucibles a
solemn analhema maranatha.-Ten
Cnr D,trniI Ere prnss