the size of a small garden pea, a little longer. The body is furrowed from the sides of the stomach and abdomen; the back is convex and streaked by transverse wrinkles, which meet on the belly by a double margin, on which may be seen twelve small hairs or bristles in the young, but which disappear when the insect arrives at the adult state; some only remaining at the extremity of the abdomen. The insects appear white at first sight, but strip them of the white powder with which they are covered, and they appear of a dark brown. They have six very small feet, almost imperceptible, buried in the wrinkles of their body; the head or beak is situated in the breast. The young are contained in their mothers, attached, like a string of beads, to one common placenta, under the form and envelope of an eggThey generally die, under this form, if an abortion take place. The female is of the size of a pin's head; the male is less than double this size. The young sometimes remain two or three days with the mother, suspended to her abdomen like a small bunch of grapes, or dispersed on her back or under her abdomen. Pressed by hunger, and having sufficient strength to break the umbilicus, they leave the mother, and place themselves on the Nopals. It has been said that the little Cochineals do not pass from one Nopal to another; this, however, is incorrect, as they have been seen passing along a spider's thread in search of another plant. They fix themselves with their feet and rostrum, which they insert in the rind of the Nopal the same day, or at farthest the day following, after they leave their mothers. The rostrum being broken or distended, they perish like the Cochineal Silvester. Ten days after their birth, the females appear covered with a very white mealy substance, almost impalpable. The males at this period are indistinctly mixed with the females, but ten days after, they form cylindrical cases, by which they are defended as they grow; in this they remain concealed until their puberty: the Silvester does the same. This case is somewhat conical, and covered with a white powder. It is by the rostrum that they live attached to the plant. The great exterior difference between the Silvester and the fine Cochineal, which appears equally white, is, that the fine is covered with a mealy or powdery

substance, and the Silvester with a substance resembling cotton; the former is always double the size of the latter.

Twenty-five days after the birth of a female Cochineal, she casts off her dress the male also leaves his confinement. This change. is frequently at the peril of their lives, because in their movements they are liable to break their rostra, which are firmly inserted in the plant. The female, after this change, appears of a clear brown, but the day following she is again covered with a white powder, and the place which she occupies is surrounded by a white circle of the diameter of two lines: three or four days after, she is in a fit state for fecundation. The male escapes from his concealment, in his nuptial attire, as described under the head of the Silvester. The male of the fine Cochineal resembles perfectly that of the Silvester; there is no difference, except in size, which is double.

TREATMENT OF THE FINE COCHINEAL.

THERE are three things essential in the treatment of the Grana Fina or fine Cochineal:-1st. To procure the largest females of each generation for breeders. 2dly. To distribute them only on the best and most beautiful Nopals. 3dly. To preserve them, during the winter season, in a case, or, as I have mentioned in a former part of this essay, in a conservatory, where they may be permitted to multiply, until the season commences for placing them in the Nopalry; care, however, should be taken, that the increase be limited to the proportion of plants in the conservatory for their support. Eight days after the nests are placed on the plants in the Nopalry, or fifteen days at far. thest, all that remain without bringing forth, should, with the nests, be removed, otherwise they will serve to invite destructive insects. The Cochineals which are dead, or have not brought forth, should be passed through boiling water, that they may dry quickly when exposed to the sun. These are not considered lost; they may be mixed with the crop and sold, as they are not deprived of their colouring matter. It is said that two females, placed on branches of the Nopal in a conservatory, will be suffi

cient for a stock; the produce of the first generation being three hundred; the second will amount to 1,800,000: hence the necessity of apportioning the insects, according to the number of Nopals in the conservatory. The fine Cochineals are collected at the same period, in the same manner, and undergo the same process, in the killing and drying, as the Silvester, which has already been described. The time of collecting them being a period of consequence, I will repeat, in this place, what is considered essential to produce a good crop. As soon as the females commence the important work of bringing forth their young, which is generally a day, sooner or later, than two months after they have been placed on the Nopals, no time should be lost in making the collection. This period should be attentively watched. If the females be permitted to disburden themselves, you will lose the crop; their bodies will be light and empty, will possess little colour, and soon die on the contrary, if you make the collection at the moment, when they have arrived to the full period of their gravid state, they are heavy and possess more colouring matter, every little insect or egg in the body possessing the same colouring properties as the mother; hence much of the profits of the cultivator depend on seizing this opportunity for making a general collection.

I am indebted to the "Cercle des Philadelphes"* for the preceding interesting remarks on the culture of the Cochineal insects. It is my sincere wish that they may prove useful to those who may engage in this branch of industry in the United States. The Opuntia, Nopal, or Prickly Pear, is not only proper for the raising of the Cochineal insects, but, according to Alvaro, Hernandez, Nunez, and others, it is considered a valuable article in the list of esculent vegetables. The fruit of the Opuntia, Figas Moriscas," is the principal sustenance of whole families in the Island of Minorca during the month of September. The prickly shrub that bears them grows wild among the rocks, and is often used to make fences to the gardens. I have seen them growing, in great luxuriance, in the vicinity of Algiers and

ર

* Cape-François.

+ Cleghorn's Minorca.

Tunis, but never met with any insects, on their articulations, which resembled the Coccus, though the climate, unquestionably, would favour their propagation. In the Island of Sicily, both the leaves and fruit are eaten; the former are roasted, the latter is brought to market in abundance, and considered by many as a great delicacy, when deprived of the rind; it is generally, of a beautiful crimson. The leaves, when roasted or boiled, are also used as poultices to ill-conditioned ulcers. In one instance I was present when a Sicilian physician recommended their application, when warmed, to the right hypochondrium, in a case of diseased liver, as a discutient, but without any benefit as such, for an abscess pointed outwards a few days after the application, which was opened, to the great relief and final recovery of the patient.

Philadelphia, October 1st, 1810.

DEAR SIR,

IMPROVEMENT IN SHEEP.

HAW-THORN, (near Winchester, Va.) 8th Sept. 1816.

I HAVE received the first number of the " Archives of Useful Knowledge." I am much pleased with it's plan, and believe it will be the mean of diffusing much valuable information. Supposing that your readers will recieve, with pleasure, accounts of every attempt to develope and improve the internal resources of our country, I send you the following statement.

Two years since, a number of the farmers of Frederick county, Virginia, associated for the purpose of encouraging domestic manufactures, and improving their sheep. Their first meeting, to award premiums, was held on the 22d of May, 1809, when but one member, Mr. Richard K. Meade, exhibited lambs for the prizes. He showed a lamb that weighed 159 lb. on the hoof, and produced 9 lb. 6 oz. of wool, which had been washed on his back.

A second meeting of the Society was held on the 21st of May, 1810, when the following lambs were showed:

Wt.

Mr. David Ridgeway's lamb* (Tom Tackle) 180 lb.

on the hoof. Fleece.

9 3-4

These sheep were shorn without the wool being washed on their backs; but it was very clean.

It may be remarked, that hitherto, no kind of attention had ever been paid to the sheep of our county. Neither Mr. Ridgeway nor Dr. Macky ever raised a lamb, before last year, that was worthy of notice. But since the establishment of our Society, and since the inhabitants of our county have felt the policy of depending less on foreigners and more on themselves, for the comforts and necessaries of life, the above improvement is already experienced in our flocks.

Mr. Ridgeway, a few weeks since, weighed a couple of twin lambs, at five months old. One of them weighed one hundred and fifteen, and the other one hundred and sixteen pounds. They are from his prize ram, Tom Tackle, who was permitted to go to a few ewes last fall. There can be no doubt, respecting the weights of these lambs, as they were weighed by Mr. Ridgeway and his miller, with great care; and Mr. Ridgeway is not only a gentleman of unquestionable veracity, but also of great attention to business.

Besides the above exhibition of sheep, which certainly did great credit to their owners, ten pieces of fine woollen cloth, five pieces of fancy cotton, four pieces of fine flaxen linen, and a piece of blanketing, were shown for premiums. The expectations of the most sanguine members of our Society, were greatly exceeded by many of the above specimens. No idea had been formed, of the excellence, to which our household manufactures had been carried, in the short period of two years. And ocular

* From another account I learn, that these lambs were 1-4 Blood Barbary. -EDITOR.