124 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August t, 1882. 



useless in this country, is much esteemed in some 

 parts of Brazil, for I noticed that many of the 

 mules going u to Farer St. Anna, a district situated 

 a lung way from where the piaseava is grown, were 

 loaded wiih this flos-y piassava. After being cleaned 

 the piassava is taken to the sheds which are gener- 

 ally erected by the side of the river?, to be 

 pressed ; it is then packed in bales and bundles and 

 put on board the lauclies to be taken to Bahia from 

 whence it is shipped to Europe and elsewhere. Dur- 

 ing my visit I stayed for a short time at a native 

 hut in the district. My food consisted of mandioca, 

 mixed with a few eggs and water, and baked on 

 burnt clay, and sometmies dried fish (young shark) 

 was included in the baked dish. I never saw any 

 bread all the time I was in the district ; an old 

 dark woman performed the office of cook, mixing the 

 food with her hands which somewhat resembled the 

 paws of a monkey. At night I slept upon a 

 long board cut from the rosewood tree, and 

 which virtually was my bed. The native hut 

 was completely covered and protected with the 

 leaves of the piassava. The piassnva is sent principally 

 to London, Liverpool, Hamburg, Antwerp, Havre, and 

 some small quantity to Portugal, and sold to the bass 

 dressers, who employ men to cut it into lengths from 

 five to fourteen inches ; it is then sold in this state to 

 the brush ujakers who manufacture it into brooms 

 (called "bass" brooms) for sweeping yards, stables, 

 roads, streets, &o. The brooms used by the sweepers 

 of the Loudon streets and of many j^rovincial towns 

 are made of this material, and I notice these brooms 

 already in use in the convenience erected by the Duke 

 of Bedford, for the use of the market people. Such 

 places supplied with such brooms ought to be largely 

 multiplied in London. In some parts of England the 

 brooms are miscalled "whalebone" brooms; on ship- 

 board they are called "coir," while in Yorkshire they 

 are known as "weed" brooms. I was told in Bahiu 

 that the name "bass" brooms was given to thepiassuva 

 owing to the dealers in the early days of the trade 

 having paid for it in "Bass's" pale ale. Piassava 

 was first introduced into this country in the form of 

 long ropes, and the "fenders" now so well known 

 and used for placing down by the side of vessels when 

 passing through the docks, or when coming in con- 

 tact with other ships. Shortly after its introduction 

 a portion of one of the fenders got into the 

 hands of a working brushmaker, he made a broom which 

 answered well. About this time the bulk of the sugiir 

 which was shipped from Bahia was packed in cases 

 of about 16 cwt. each, and small quantities of 

 piassava were used as dunnage, and lots of 2 to .3 

 tons would come forward principally to Liverpool. 

 At the period of time I speak of I hud business 

 relations with Mr. Richard Dean, of Birmingham, a 

 manufacturer of broom stocks. 1 induced him to begin 

 to k''ep the piassava and retail it in email quantities 

 to poor Iiishmen who work principally in gnrrets. 

 These men would buy from 14 lb to 1 cwt. on the 

 Monday, ani with the stocks and a little pitch m^ke 

 up the brooms and ha . k them about at the end of the 

 week, many of the brush-makers letusing in toto to 

 enrei iniocutupetition with the beso.ii-makers (who were 

 principally gipsies), ihe Irishmen began to make money 

 by their \v..rk, and before long the brush-makers 

 gradually began to get into the trade. 



As the businpss is likely to increase it is necessary 

 that some movement should be made to induce the 

 people iu the country wHere the piassava trees grow, 

 to plant fresh trees and make regular plant- 

 ations in the same way as already has been done 

 in the cases of coHee, fugar, cotton, and cocoa plant- 

 ations. It is cleat ly evide.it that we cannot depend 

 on the fuiure supply by the present natural, though 

 precarious mode of planting, which is entirely due to 



small animals and birds carrying the coquilla nuts 

 (the fruit of the tree) from one part of the forest to 

 another, leaving the nut on the ground, which, in the 

 course of a little time, springs up into a piassava 

 tree. On the top of the piassava tree a large bunch of 

 these coquilla nuts grow, they are used in some parts 

 of Germany for making the bowls of tobacco pipes, 

 small tops, and other fancy articles. While 1 was in 

 the forests 1 had one of the piassava trees out down, 

 with the piassava and coquilla nuts in full growth, and 

 when the tree was in its full beauty. I had it sent 

 up to Bahia as a specimen, for although Ihe district 

 wnere the trees grow is so near to this large city, 

 many of those who deal in this product have never 

 seen it grow iu the forest. Although I have travelled 

 over a considerable part of North, South, and Central 

 America and other parts of the world, there is no 

 tight more beautiful to my fancy than a forest of 

 piassava trees. My only drawback in travelling in this 

 part of Brazil was the want of a proper lodging-house, 

 or place to sleep in. If I could only have been sure 

 of getting a bed or accommodation equal to what our 

 cuauals get in our workhouses in England, and free from 

 lizards, centipedes, snakes, musquitoes, and a hundred 

 other lively companions, my happiness would have 

 been complete. 



I have tried to introduce the trade of making bass 

 brooms into Naples, Rome, Genoa, and other parts 

 of Italy. In Naples the streets are swept with small 

 boughs of trees tied together, and few sticks made 

 into a bundle. Although I have completely failed 

 to get small manufacturers to start the business in 

 Italy, I am quite convinced in my own mind that, 

 if any one started the bass room making, they would 

 soon find a ready sale in every city in that improv- 

 ing country. The export of piassava from Bahia to 

 Europe in 18S1 has been .33b,288 packages, 507,157 

 arrobas, equal to 7,245 tons English; of this 

 quantity nearly 6,000 tons was imported into England. 



Para piassava or monkey bass is obtained from 

 trees of the same family of palms as the Bahia pias- 

 sava. The trees grow by the side of the White 

 River and other streams that flow, into the Oronoco 

 and the Barra de Rio Negro, and are sent down to 

 Para for shipment to England. This kind of piassava, 

 which is of a finer quality than the Bahia piassava, 

 realizes considerably more, and is used in making 

 small brushes for cleaning cloth, &c. 



Bass brooms were introduced into Dublin by 

 Mrs. E. Wilson, the owner of the "Favourite" 

 omnibuses in London, that lady going over herself 

 to Ireland and finding out the necessity for such 

 reform as ran be broughi about by the free use of these 

 lirnoms. She accordingly sent over a new omnibus 

 full of the new brooms to Dublin, starting the trade in 

 Ireland in this way. 



Before piassava became such an important item of 

 commerce from Brazil, the natives iu the districts 

 where it is collected lived a very indolent, useless ex- 

 iste'ice ; they employed theii- time to a limited extent 

 in hunting, and their food consisted mainly of the 

 mandaoca mentioned above. Very different, however, 

 is the state of things today. The collecting of the 

 piassava from the tiees now finds work for hundreds 

 of men, while as many are required to clean and 

 press it. Labimr is also in great demand fur trans- 

 porting, it and placing it iu the Trepech or warehouse 

 iu Bahia, and from the Trepeohe to the vessels for 

 shipment to England. From this point the English 

 labour commences : sailors to bring it to England, 

 dock labourers to discharge the citrgo and warehouse 

 it in our docks, subsequently carters and lightermen 

 to remove the piassava from the docks to the works, 

 porters and railwaymen to carry it to the works and 

 place it inside, men to steam it, men to cut it, men 

 and boys to comb it, packers to pack it for home ancj 



