Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-04-03
WAX CULTURE.
DESCRIPTION OF A REMARK
ABLE CHINESE INDUSTRY.
Gathering the Whitc-Wax insect
IIO.n PROSECUTIONS Method
of Collecting the
Wax.


the level Of the sea, is the great breeding
ground of the whitc.wax insect. One
very prominent tree there is known to
the Chinese as the insect tree. 1t IS an
evergreen with tha leaves springing in
pairs from the branches, very thick,
dark green, glossy, ovatc and pointed.
In May and June tbe tree bears clusters
of white flowers, which are succeeded
by fruit OF dark purple color. In
March, when Mr.. Hosie saw the trees, be
found attached to the bark Of the boughs
and twigs numerous brown pea-shaped
excrescences. The larger Of these were
readily detachable, and, when opened,
presented either whity-brown pulpy
mass, or a crowd Of minute animals like
-four. whose movements were Just per-
ceptible to the naked eye. From two to
three months later these had developed
in each case into swarm Of brown
creatures. each provided with six legs
and a pair OF antennae; each oil these
was a white-wax insect. Many OF the
cxcrescenccs also contained either a
small white bag or cocoon covering a
pupa, or a perfect image in the shape Of
a small black beetle. This beetle Is
species of Brachytarsus. If left undis-
turbed, the beetle, which is called by
the Chinese the "bulfalo, " will, needless
of the Cocci, continue to burrow in the
inner lining Of the scale which seems to
be its food; the beetle is, in fact, parasitic
on the Coccus. When a scale is plucked
from the tree the Cocci escape by the
orifce which is made.
Two hundred miles to the northeast of
the Chien.chang Valley, and separated
from it by series of mountain ranges,
is the town Of Chatting, in which in
sect whitc-wax as an article of commerce
is reduced. The scales are gathered in
the Chen chang Valley, and are made
up into paper packets, each weighing
about sixteen ounces. Sixty of these
packets make a load, and are conveyed
by porters from Chien-chang to CHA
ting lin former years there are said to
have been as many as 10000 Of these
porters). They travel only during the
night, in order to avoid the high tenn
peraturc Of the day, which would tend
to the rapid development of the insects
and their escape from the scales. AT the
stopping places the packets are opened
out in cool places, but in spite OF this
each packet is found to have lost on al
average an ounce in transit \ pound of
scales laid down in Chatting costs, in
years of plenty, about half-a-crown; in
bad years the price is doubled. In fav-
orable years a pound of scales will pro-
duce four to five pounds OF wax. In the
plain around Chatting the plots of
ground are thickly edged with stumps
varying from three or four to twelve feet
high, with numerous sprouts rising from
their gnarled heads, and resembling at a
distance our own pollard willows. The
leaves spring in pairs from the branches,
and are light-green, ovatc, pointed, SER
rated and deciduous. The tree is said in
all probability to be species OF ash.
On the arrival of the scales from Chen
chang about the beginning of May, they
are made up in small packets Of from
twenty to thirty scales, which arc in
closed in a leaf Of the wood-oil tree.
The edges of the leaf are tied together
with rice straw, by which the packet
is suspended close under the branches of
this ash or white-wax tree, as the Chinese
call it. A few rough holes are drilled
in the leaf with q blunt needle, so that
tie insects may find their way through
them to the branches. On emerging
from the scales the insects creep rapidly
ND to the leaves, among which they
nestle for a period Of thirteen days.
They then descend to the branches or
twigs, on which they take up their posi-
ton. the females doubtless to provide
for continuation of the race by develop
ing scales in which to deposit their eggs,
and the males to eyecrete the substance
known as white wax. This first appears
as an undercoating on the sides of the
boughs and twigs, and resembles sui
phatc Of quinine, or a covering OF snow.
1t gradually spreads over the whole
branch and attains after three months
thickness of about quarter Of an inca.
After the lapse of hundred days the
deposit is complete, the branches are
Topped off, and as much of the wax as
possible is removed by hand. This is
placed in an iron pot of boiling water,
and the wax, on rising to the surface, is
skinned off and placed in a round mould,
whence it emerges as the white wax Of
commerce. Where it is found imposs;-
bic to remove the wax by hand the twigs
and branches are thrown into the pot, so
that this wax is darker and inferior
The insects, which have sunk tc the bot
tom of the pot, arc placed in bag and
squeezed of the last drop of wax, and
then thrown to the pigs. The wax is
used for coating the exterior of animal
and vegetable tallow candles, and TO give
greater consistency to the talow. 1t is
also said to be used as a sizing for paper
and cotton goods, for imparting gloss