Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-10-18
CHINESE WHITE WAX.
THE CURIOUS METHOD BY WHICH
1T is PRODUCED.

Diminished the Demand-The Wax
Tree and Its Peculiar Treatment.
The Chinese insect white wax is
made the subject of n report from onr
Consul at Chungking. There are GER
tain trees growing in the valley of n
river tributary to the Yangtse upon
which the white wax insect breeds in
great numbers. The valley is at least
5000 feet above the sea. In March
and April each year brown, pea shaped
excrescences, or "scales," are found
on the bark of the trees. Each
"scale is filed with the eggs of an in
sect, and it has been deposited there
in the regular course of nature by the
female of this odd little creature, and
the species propagates itself in this
way. At the end of April the "scales''
are taker off the trees and are brought
to a town which is in the centre of the
district. To this place large numbers
of porters annually resort to carry the
eggs 200 miles across the mountains
to great rice field. In earlier years
these porters numbered as many as
10000, but with the lessening of the
demand for the wax there has natur-
ally come a decrease in the number of
the men who engage themselves in the
industry. The ''scales" are made M
into paper packets, each weighing
about sixteen ounces, and load
usually consists of about sixty packets.
Great care has to be taken in the
transit of the "scales." The porters
travel only during the night. for, at
the season of transit, the temperature
is already high during the day. and
would tend to the rapid development
of the insects and their escape from
the "scales" At their resting places
the porters open and spread out the
packets in cool places. Notwithstand-
ing all these precautions, however,
each packet, ON arrival, is found to be
more than an ounce lighter than when
it started.
When the porters reach the rice
fields with their burden, the work of
producing the wax begins. The plots
of ground here are divided with
stumps which are from three to twelve
feet in height. Sprouts rise from the
gnarled heads of these trunks, the
tree seeming to be species of ash.
The Chinese call it the "white wax
tree"
The scales on their arrival, about
the beginning of May, are made into
small packets OF from twenty to thirty
scales, which are enclosed in leaf of
the wood-oil tree. The edges of the
leaf are tied together with a rice straw,
by which the packet is also suspended
close under the branches of the wax
tree. A few rough holes are drilled
in the leaf with blunt needle, so
that the insects may find their way
through them to the branches.
On emerging from the scales, the
insects creep rapidly up the branches
to the leaves, among which they nestle
for period of thirteen days. They
then descend to the branches and twigs,
on which they take up their position,
the females, doubtless, to provide for
u continuation of the race by develop
ing scales in which to deposit their
eggs and the males to excrete the sub
stance known as white wax.
Iut QHYS hlueT UnblE
escape from the scales and their future
life when studded on the bark, the in
sects must derive their nourishment
from the sap of the tree, although to
the unaided eye there is no visible
impression on leaves or bark. From
the absence of any such marks, the
Chinese declare that the insects live
ON dew and that the wax perspires
from the bodies.
The wax first appears as a white
coating on the under sides of tie
boughs and twigs. and resembles very
much covering of snow. 1t gradually
spreads over the whole branch and at
tains, after three months, thickness
of about one-fourth of an inch. When
the white deposit becomes visible on the
branches, the farmer may be seen 60
ing the round of his trees, carefully