GENERAL IMPRESSIONS OF BRAZIL. 505 



infinite variety of gums, resins, barks, and textile fibres still 

 unknown to commerce in Europe and the United States. 

 To these Brazil might add spices, the monopoly of which 

 belongs now to the Sunda Islands. The second region, 

 extending from Bahia to Santa Catarina, is that of 

 coffee. The third, from Santa Catarina to Rio Grande, 

 and in the interior of the high plateaux, is that of the 

 grains ; and, in connection with their culture, the raising 

 of cattle. Rice, which is easily grown throughout Brazil, 

 and cotton, which yields magnificent crops in all the 

 provinces, bind together these three zones, sugar and to- 

 bacco following in their train. An important step with 

 reference to agriculture, which has scarcely been thought 

 of as yet, is the cultivation of the heights of the Organ 

 Mountains, as well as those of the Serra do Mar and the 

 Serra do Mantiqueira. On these high lands might be 

 raised all the products characteristic of the warmer por- 

 tions of the temperate zones, and Rio de Janeiro would 

 receive daily from the mountains in her immediate neigh- 

 borhood all those vegetables and garden fruits which she 

 now procures in small quantities and at high prices from 

 the provinces bordering on the La Plata. The slopes of 

 these Serras might also be covered with plantations of cas- 

 carilla, and, as the production of quinine must sooner or 

 later be greatly diminished by the devastation of the Cin- 

 chona-trees on the upper Amazonian tributaries, it is the 

 more important, that their culture should be introduced 

 upon the largest scale on the heights above Rio. The 

 attempts of Mr. Glaziou in that direction deserve e^ery 

 encouragement. 



The sugar-cane has long been the chief object of cul- 

 tivation in Brazil, and the production of sugar is still 



22 



