Cacao.
The use of chocolate is so universal in Mexico and throughout Spanish countries, that it might naturally be supposed the cultivation of cacao was largely and carefully attended to in the republic. Such, however, is not the case. The cacao of Soconusco, and of the low grounds of Caraccas, Guatemala and Guyaquil, was found to be so superior to the Mexican article, that its production has been almost abandoned except in the neighborhood of Colima, or on the Isthmus and in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas.
Cochineal.
The Opuntia, or Indian fig, a species of cactus is the food in Mexico which supports an insect from whose body the dye known as Cochineal is made. It is found also in Brazil where it nourishes the grana sylvestre which affords a dye that is greatly inferior in color as well as durability to that produced by the grana fina of Mexico.
The grana fina resembles a small bug in size and color, covered with a whitish mealy powder, through which the rings or cross stripes on the back of the insect are distinctly visible; the female alone produces the dye; the males are smaller, and one is found sufficient to impregnate three hundred females.
The cochineal bug feeds only on the leaf of the opuntia. The process of rearing is complicated and attended with much difficulty. The leaves of the nopal upon which the seed is deposited, must be kept free from all foreign substances, and, in the cochineal districts the Indian women constantly tend the plants, brushing them lightly with a squirrel's tail.