Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/271

CH. XVII.] with the costly parasyte. When the plant is perfectly saturated, the cochineal is scraped off with great care. The plants are not very valuable for the first year, but, from questions I put to the steward about the produce, it appeared that they might be estimated as yielding after the second year, from a dollar to a dollar and a half profit on each plant. Indigo is described as a substance of a deep blue colour, containing about fifty per cent of pure colouring matter: the analysis of indigo, says Brande, in his Manual of Chemistry, page 49, where he proposes to ascertain the proportion of colouring matter, which varies much in different samples, may be performed by the successive action of water, alcohol, and muriatic acid. One hundred parts of Guatemala indigo thus treated afforded to water twelve parts, to alcohol thirty, to muriatic acid ten, to residue of pure indigo forty-eight. This analysis would seem to prove that the indigo of Guatemala is superior to that of any other country.