624 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[February i, 1883. 



name !) was as certain that he had seen all the 

 plants known in India as hybrids in the forests of the 

 Andes as he was of his own existence. Whether 

 pubescent or glabrous they were merely forms of 

 Pata de Gallinazo, and Colonel Beddome, to make 

 confusion worse confounded, quoted the learned 

 Director of the Ceylon Botanical Gardens, one of the 

 leading botanical authorities of the day, as favour- 

 ing this idea. If Dr. Trimeu had been accused of 

 doubting Darwin's development theorj' and going 

 back to tlie exploded doctrines of direct creation and 

 the fixity of species, his mind could not have been 

 more troubled within him. He believed and he had 

 told Colonel Beddome the very opposite of what he 

 was credited with, and we should have thought 

 that the couple of letters he wrote at the time 

 of the appearance of Col. Beddome's report, though 

 they might not have dissipated all darkness res- 

 pecting the hybrids, would have dispelled all doubt 

 as to Dr. Trimeu 's opinions. Briefly they were, that, 

 whatever else the so-called hybrids might be, they 

 were not Dr. Spence's Pata de Gallinazo, because 

 specimens of this plant are in the Ivew Herbarium, 

 and specimens of the hybrids compared with them 

 were found to diflfer essentially. The bent of Dr. 

 Trimen's mind was to believe that the robust plants, 

 about which the confusion of tongues raged, were, 

 as popularly believed, hybrids, but, as this had been 

 questioned, he suggested that all the varieties should 

 continue to be known as Cinchona robusta until 

 not only the controversy but the permanent char- 

 acter of the plants themselves was settled. He, 

 who, in correcting Col. Beddome's annoyuig niis- 

 appreliension, had clearly indicated his opinion tliat, 

 provisionally, the term rohusta should be applied to 

 the chain of hybritl forms (whether bearded or smooth 

 acute leaved or broad-foliagedj, between C officrnalis 

 and C. succiruhi-a and gave what he deemed con- 

 clusive reasons why the grandiose name ilwjnij'olia 

 for one variety should be ignored, finds himself now 

 credited with being godparent to tlie smooth-leaved 

 large hybrid and {,i^'i"S i* '■'^^ very name against 

 which he had protested ! There is just one question, 

 however, which we should wish to see settled. It, 

 as some suppose (and we confess we incline to the 

 belief), Iiybridization may have taken place in the 

 natixe haliiitats of tlie various species of ciucliouas 

 in America, then specimens of the hybrid forms 

 from America ought to be in the European 

 herbaria. Dr. Trimen got his Kew friends to 

 settle the question that the Indian hybrids were not 

 Pata de Gallinazo. But it would be satisfactory to 

 be finally assured, that no forms identical with them 

 are to be found in the public or private collections 

 of Europe of specimens of cinchonas from the Andean 

 forests. If tlie reply is a negative one, we shall then 

 be shut up to the conclusion that the interference of 

 man, and his cultivation in India and Ceylon of the 

 various species in close juxtaposition, brought about 

 results wliich nature had not been able to educe in 

 the course of countless ages. It may follow too, that 

 hylirids thus produced may not be so permanent in 

 character and existence as we could wish. 



COFFEE IN BRAZIL ; 

 THE NECESSITIES OP AGRICULTURE. 



(From the Ro News, Nov 5th, 18S2.) 



Tlie iii'st address in the series of conferences in con- 



nectiun with the coffee exhibition at the Typ.graphia 



Nitional, was held on the evening nf the 30th uit. 



the speaker being tlic Carao do Rio Benito, one of 



the most prominent and successful. pliuiters in Brazil. 

 His address was upon "necessities o( agriculture," 

 and may be accepted as a fair statement of ihe views 

 of tlie real planting class. We saj real, becnuse those 

 planters whose wliole life is spent in politics and 

 ciiies can not justly be considered as fair lypes of 

 agriculturists, and are not therefore competent to ex- 

 press the views of those whose lives are chiefly spent 

 upon their plantations. The remaiks of the speaker, 

 as freely translated from the JornaVs report, were as 

 follows : 



The orator painted in the liveliest cdors the feeling 

 of doubt and discuuragenieut felt by the planteis from 

 whom much has been asked, to whom niucli has been 

 promised, who have been made to b ar the maximum 

 of contributions notwitlistanding that nothing has been 

 griinttd tliem. For the sake of the emancipation 

 question the planter has been treated as if he waa a 

 being outside the Biazilian communion. The sentiment 

 of emancipation, however, does not belong exclusively 

 to any one class. The planter also has it. His question 

 is in regard to the mode of re-olving the problem. 

 Tlie emancipation propaganda has frightened onpital 

 from agriculture so that it lacks the means of pin- 

 gressiug. Ir is a mist ke to say that there is a lick 

 of capital ; what is lacking is the means of mobilizing 

 the capital pos.sessed by the planting class, the richest 

 in the country, for the development of agriculture 

 and of public wealth. 



Referring to the question of colonization, the orator 

 cited the opinion ol Dr. Avellaneda to the effect that 

 the current of colonizition depends on the dif- 

 fusion of knowledge, in Europe, in regard to the 

 climatic conditions of the country. Tiiis propaganda 

 should be done by the executive power through its dip- 

 lomatic and and consular agents, and thiough the press. 

 S|ioutaneous immigr,ation passes Brazil and goes to the 

 Argentine Republic because there money h.is been spent 

 to attract it and the propaganda has been established. 

 Everything respecting the emigrant to the Argentine 

 Republic is knowu in Europe. Brazil has spent use- 

 URssly hundr ds ofcontos for colonization. One diffic- 

 Ufcy 13 the lack of a law of labor contracts {hcardo de 

 serinfOfi) to guarantee bilateral contracts. The con- 

 tracts made by official agents have been of no benefit to 

 the planters. The orator his seen more than six hund- 

 red of these contracts in which shceniakere, tailors, etc., 

 have been contracted for plantation service. 



As regards the substitution of slave labor, the orator 

 confides in and is guided by the law of the 28th of 

 September. The loyalty with wliieh the planters have 

 complied with tlii.s law i.s well known, ihcy have gone 

 beyond the law, and, in ihe huge number of liberations 

 grunted, the planters have, at their own cost, done 

 more than all the em.incipatiou associations. More- 

 over, the mortality among the free children on 

 the plantations is less than in the cities of Europe. 

 Not.<ith6taniiiug these facts, accusations are still 

 bii'UL<ht aga ust the planter in regard to the servile 

 element. The question of emancipation preseuis diffic- 

 ulties to the pl.tnter because he sees, he sees, as was 

 foreseen 16 yeais ago, that he is without means of 

 mobilizing his capital, and is without credit because 

 tbe emancipation propagaud'i has contributed to this 

 result. He S' es daily, liowever, the volcano over which 

 he is placed. The transformation of labor might par- 

 haps be made in such a way as to reduce the planters 

 to Ihe position of the English landholders. 'Ihey 

 Would not be the only ones to suffer in this cnse, 

 but the state and every one in the empire nould suf- 

 fer also. 



The budget just voted, while it diminishes the un.^ 

 reasonable export duties by 2 per cent, in favmir of 

 agriculture, adds ID per cent, to the import duties 

 wbich also falls upon agriculture. The protest of the 

 Cent) (la Lavotir e do Commercio were either disre- 



