THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July 2, 1883. 



of which one has a view worth crossing Europe for ; the 

 less ilistracting suburb scenery all round the town ; the 

 gi'eat broad-spreading views from mountain ridge a dozen, 

 twenty miles away ; what have you not in Kio to delight 

 the eye, where all of Nature's grandest work seem to con- 

 verge in one sublime and mighty whole ? 



One must bo excused for using strong superlatives in 

 such a country as Brazil; the whole country is superlat- 

 ive, superlatively rich, and green, and beautiful. We 

 rode some distance the next day, crossing the hills at a 

 different poiut from the road of the night before, and, 

 sending our horses back, walked dowii the range, 

 and into the toivn by another route. The head of this 

 pass is called the Chinese view,* on account of Chinamen 

 being employed upon the road. It is thought to be the 

 finest riew near Eio, and certainly appeared to us quite 

 unsurp.nssable: 



" When for a mile or two we thus had gone, 

 The mountains opened wide on either hand, 



And lo, amid those labyrinths of stoue 

 The sea had got entangled in the laud. 



And turned and twisted, struggling to get free, 



And be once more the immeasm-able sea." 



We reached Petropolis in the evening after the most 

 delightful drive, and were very comfortably lodged at quite 

 a pretentious hotel. Petropolis is the royal suburb. Ilere 

 the Emperor flies from the summer of Kio. Here also 

 the diplomatic people have their hot-weather houses. The 

 air is keen and bracing, and the scenery iu every direc- 

 tion superb. It is 2,(100 feet above the sea, and the nights 

 are cold, and even frosty. The town is most Cerman in 

 appearance, having, indeed, been founded by imigrants of 

 that nationality; a stream runs down the centre of the 

 Main Street, and ti'ees are planted along its banks, and 

 here and there a garden is laid out. Fuchsias sixty feet 

 high, and the universal tree fern, and poinsettias a foot 

 in diameter, however, remind us we are in Brazil. The 

 Germans have given up settling in any numbers iu this 

 part of the country, but to the south, in the Eio Grande 

 district there is still a very large annual immigration 

 from Bremen, Hamburg, »s:c. 



We started, literally at the first streak of dawn on the 

 following morning, iu a real old Engli.sh coach drawn by 

 four splendid mules, to drive along the great high road 

 to Entre Kios. Our way lay through a very hilly country, 

 not mountainou.s, but simply covei'ed, if one may use such 

 an expression, with hills all wonderfully alike. The road 

 winds in and out amongst the valleys, and a capital road 

 it is, comparable with any in Europe or elsewhere. '^Ve 

 made the journey, seemingly with great case, of forty-five 

 miles in five hours, employing six tean^s. We were often 

 as many as twelve outside, and yet the mules were al- 

 ways up to their work. 



Coffee, coifee everywhere; whole forests cleared, away 

 to make place for coffee, whole hills close shorn for cof- 

 fee; coftee above on the right, and again below on the 

 left; coffee along the valley, and on ihe hill-brow, and 

 down the slope, and up the rise ; coffee di-ying in the sun 

 on Hat open floors in front of peasants' houses; coft'ee in 

 little jiiles near the cottage doors, or in sacks ready for 

 carting: waggon-loads of coffee being drawn toilfully along 

 towards the railw.ay ; coffee too in littlo cups on the 

 counters of the wayside inns ; in fact, everywhere coff'ee! 

 It is deplorable to see the awful destruction of vegetable 

 life in the pi'oductiou of this berry. The virgin forest is 

 burnt and the hillside disfigured with smouldering logs 

 and stumps. The lovely valleys are stripped clean, and 

 coff'ee reigns supreme over hill and dale. " Agassiz con- 

 vinced himself that this rich country had been swept by 

 glacial action, and that the most successful coffee planta- 

 tions were f(umd exactlj' where the movements of ice 

 had most enriched the soil by transportation and mixture 

 of its compound elements." The glaciers surely theu 

 worked to some purpo.se. The production of coffee in 

 Brazil has now reached twelve millions sterling worth a 

 year. Half the supply of the entire world comes from 



* The engraving given might stand for a. view in Trincom- 

 alce Harbom" giveu by Tennent : the similarity is wonder- 

 ful,— Ed. 



these hills, which are said to produce no less then 260,000 

 tons per annum.* 



Pleasant hamlets line the road at intervals, and pros- 

 perity is generally observable. Now a village school, where 

 are clean and neat children; now some rich planter's viUa, 

 large and barrack-looking; now, shaking off the coffee 

 for a mile, we catch a glimpse of the okl primeval forest 

 glory, with some fine crag or bold hillside, untouched or 

 even untouchable by the planter's destrojing hand. 



We took the railway when our coaching was done, and 

 ran through more coffee country, and then changed on to 

 the main line, known as the Pedro Seguudo railroad, and 

 commenced our journey over the mountains and back to 

 the western side of Kio. The crossing of the "serra" is 

 a great engineering work, abounding in sharp curves, 

 steep gradients, tunnels, high bridges, and the like. We 

 passed through quite indescribable marvels of forest 

 scenery, ferns, shrubs, and trees, flowers and creepers, all 

 mixed in wildest entanglement. Great open views, too, 

 may be had from the Organ Mountains' crest, across the 

 lower hills, beyond and away to the broad Atlantic. 



AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS IN THE WEST- 

 ERN TROPICS (EQUALLY REQUIRED 

 IN THE EAST). 



(From the Demerara Eoynl Gazette.) 

 The considcr.ation we have of late given to the 

 encouragement of new industries in the cohmy has, in a 

 measure, been the means of directing our attention to the 

 necessity of establishing a School of Agriculture, 

 There is little good m telling even the more intel- 

 ligent of the small landowners and labourers, that 

 they can, by cultivating the many and various 

 products this colony is blessed with, make for 

 themselves and their children, not only an 

 easy livelihood, but an ever increasing source of 

 wealth and comfort. The fruits they know and under- 

 stand, which grow, w6 may say spontaneously, re- 

 quiring but little care and attention, they will, no 

 doubt — a suitable market offering — cultivate and attend 

 to iu the manner their forefathers did before them. 

 But we all know what an unsatisfactory system this 

 has been. No care taken in the collection of plants, 

 no attempt mad?, by grafting or otherwise to improve 

 those already known to all, and no trial given to 

 new varieties. As were the fruits of British Guiana — 

 with the exception of a few plants got from India, 

 Jamaica, and Trinidad, by the proprietors of one or 

 two sugar estates — so are they still, and with this 

 serious drawback — the natural deterioration due to old 

 and worn out trees, and continuously planting from 

 the same class of seeds. The consequence is, our 

 oranges are stringy, our limes are reduced to a size not 

 mucli bigger than a walnut, and other plants have 

 degenerated iu like proportions. In fact it is the un- 

 animous verdict of all old colonists that none of the 

 fruits of the colony have one half of the excellence tiiey 

 possessed in their younger days. The reason for this 

 is not far to seek. The cultivators, few though thi.se 

 be, know nothing of the good results to be obtained 

 from grafting or from change of seed, and have ac- 

 cordiugly been satisfied to go along in the old 

 grooves. 



An ounce of example is worth many pounds of pre- 

 cept, and fortunately for the colony and its future 

 well-being, that example can now be obtained, in 

 the Botanical Gardens, under the able administcratiiin 

 of Mr. .Jenman and his co-adjutor Mr. VVuby, 

 colonists have an opportunity afforded th' m of 

 witnessing the results that can be procured from 

 Boientitic cultivation. The difficulty that presouts 



* An able-bodied man can cultivate 2,000 cofi'ee-trees, 

 ou an area of five acres ; these will give him au average 

 crop of £6,000 worth about £SQ. 'With slaie Labour the 

 produce is reckoned at £60 per head. 



