Every one knows that the little insect called the cochineal, furnishes, when its body has been dried and reduced to powder, a colouring matter of a beautiful red, peculiar to itself. This circumstance has saved the cochineal from the persecution to which so many other kinds of insects have been devoted by the hand of man. In hot climates, in which the cochineal insect delights, it has been preserved, and is cultivated as an article of commerce. This is how the cochineal is reared in Mexico:--An open piece of land is chosen, protected against the west wind, and of about one or two acres in extent. This is surrounded with a hedge of reeds, planted in lines, distant from each other about a yard, with cuttings of cactus at most about two feet apart. The cactus garden made, the next thing is to establish in it cochineals. With this object in view they are sought in the woods, or else the females of the cochineal insect which are pregnant are taken off plants which have been sheltered during the winter, and placed in dozens, in nests made of cocoa-nut fibres, or in little plaited baskets made of the leaves of the dwarf palm, and hung on the prickles of the cactus. These are very soon covered with young larvæ. The only thing now required to be done is to shelter them from wind and rain. (PLATE IV.) [Illustration: IV. Gathering Cochineal in Algeria.] The larvæ are changed into perfect insects, which take up their abode permanently on the branches of the cacti, as Fig. 93 represents. The Mexicans gather them as soon as they have reached the perfect state. The harvest cannot be difficult, considering the immobility of these little creatures. When collected, the cochineals are killed, packed in wooden boxes, and sent to Europe, to be used in dyeing. Such is the method, very simple, as we see, of rearing the cochineal--a method which has been followed for centuries in Mexico. Towards the end of the year 1700, a Frenchman named Thierry de Menouville, formed the project of taking this precious insect away from the Spaniards, and of bestowing it upon the French colonies. He landed in Mexico, and concealed so well the object of his voyage, that he managed to embark and carry to St. Domingo several cases containing plants covered with living cochineals. Unfortunately, a revolution which had broken out at St. Domingo prevented him from succeeding in his praiseworthy endeavours. The cochineals died, and the Spaniards preserved their monopoly in the rearing of this insect. In 1806 M. Souceylier, a surgeon in the French navy, succeeded in bringing from Mexico into Europe some live cochineals. He gave them to the professor of botany at Toulon; but this attempt to preserve them was unsuccessful.