Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-03-09
THE wHITE-wAx INSECT.
a Remarkable chinese Industry.


iFro.i. IcTi1Tr of Mr. A IIosicz Three
Years iu Western China.''I |
Mr.. Hosie's third journey was in one |
sense the most interesting of all, for, al |
though the country crossed was not all |
new, the object was to study carefully, for |
the authorities at Kew. the Chinese insect
wax industry. He decided for this pur-
pose to visit the centre of the wax culture
Of the province, TO ascend by the way the
sacred Mount Omei, from whose summit
the glory of Buddha is said to be visible,
and then to strike the Yangtsze at it high
est navigable point The mountain, which
is about II ,0G0 feet high, has been devoted
TO the worship of Buddha almost since the
beginning of our era and is sufficiently re-
narkable from Il physical point of view.
Mr. lIosie devOtes u special chapter to the
white-wax insect and the industry associ-
ated with it, i'll which he traces the career
of the Coccus pe-la of Westwood from its
/ cradle, through its busy and interesting
life to its dishonored grave 1t is only in
quite recent years, and mainly through Mr..
! Hose's journey, that the mystery sur
rounding the industry has been cleared up.
| The subject was frequently referred to in
older works in China, and the chief object
of Mr.. Hosie's journey was TO procure for
Sir Joseph Hooker specimens of the foliage
of the flowers and trees on which the in
seets are prOpagated, specimens of the liv-
ing incrusted white-wax, samples of the
latter as it appears in commerce, and Chin
ese candles made fromit.
The Chien-chang valley, already alluded
| to, which is about . 1000 feet above the lev
el of tue sea, is the great breeding ground
of the whitewaX insect. One very promi-
nent tree there is known to the Chinese as
the insect tree. 1t is an evergreen with
the leaves springing in pairs from the
branches, very thick, dark green, glossy,
ovate and pointed. In May and June the
tree bears clusters of white flowers. which
are succeeded by fruit of dark purple
color. The Kew authorities have come to
the conclusion that it is Ligustrum luci-
DUN, large leaved privet. In March, when
Mr.. Hosie saw the trees, he found attached
to the bark of the boughs and twigs num-
erous brown pea shaped excrescences. The
larger of these We're readily detacha-
BILE, and, when opened, presented either
whity-brown pulpy mass, or a crowd of
minute animals like -four, whose move
ments were Just perceptible 10 the naked
eve. From two or three months later
these had developed III each case into
swarm OF brown creatures, each provided
with SIX legs and pair as antennae; each
of these was ii whiicwax insect. Many Of
the excresceHces H!sO contained either
small white bu;s or cocoon covering pupa,
or a perfect image III the shape of a small
black beetle. This beetle is a species of
BTachytarsus. 1t left undistuTbPd, the bee
tie, which j. called by the Chinese the
buffalo" will, herdless of the Cock, con-
tinue to burrow in the inner lining of the
scale which seems to be its food; the bee
tie 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 q series of mountain ranges, is
the town of Chia-ting, in which insect
white-wax as an article of commerce is
produced. The scales are gathered in the
Chien-chang Valley. and are made up in
to paper packets each weighing about six
teen ounces. Sixty of these packets make
load, and are conveyed by porters from
Chien-chang to Chatting lin former years
there are said to have been as many as
10000 of these portersl. They travel only
during the night, in order to- avoid the
high temperature of the day, which would
tend to the rapid developsment of the in
sects and their escape from the scales. AT
the stopping places the parkets are opened
out in cool places, but in spite of this each
packet is found TO have lost on an average
, laid down in CHAT ting costs, in years of
plenty. about half-a-crown; in bad years
the price is doubled. In favorable years q
pound of scales will produce four to FIVE
bounds of wax. In the plain around CHA
, ting 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 re-
| sembling at distance our own pollard
, willows. The leaves spring in pairs from
, the branches, and are Ight-green, ovate,
pointed, serrated and deciduous. The tree
{ is said in all probability to be the Fraxinus
= chinensis, a species Of ash.
On the arrival of the scales from CHEN
f chang about the beginning of May, they
r are made up in small packets of from TWEEN
: ty to thirty scales, which are inclosed in O
], leaf of the wood-oil tree. The edges of the
g leaf are tied together with rice straw, by
o which the packet is suspended close undsl