September i, 1884.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



209 



notably one of the richest in Brazil, a territory not much 

 inferior in size to England, Scotland, aud Ireland com- 

 bined, we find that down the coast for a distance of from 

 50 to SO miles inland the land is comparatively useless 

 from an agricultural point of view. Beyond this strip of 

 land the soil is a little better, and will, after the forest 

 has been cut or burnt down, produce one or two crops 

 of Indian corn or rice without the need of manuring, 

 after which it is used up. About 100 miles from the 

 sea-coast commences the coffee district, which is also 

 variable in fertility, some parts being very good, others 

 useless from being too dry, and others too sandy. Two 

 hundred miles inland, in the region included between the 

 rivers Pardo, Piracicaba, and Tiete, where trap-rock is 

 chiefly found, is the famous red land (terra roxa). Even 

 here there are stretches of miles and miles of sandy campo 

 land, useless for anything. If the European idea of good 

 land— viz., that which with careful tilling and manuring 

 will give good crops — be taken as a standard, then can 

 the whole province of Sao Paulo be considered generally 

 good, for the climate is good, the annual raiufall between 

 40 and 50 inches on the table land from Sao Paulo in- 

 land, and the seasons are well defined. This, however, 

 cannot be calledl " surpassing fertility." On the con- 

 trary, it is the usual hard work of farming. When 

 speaking of " surpassing fertility," then such rich lands 

 as will give crop after crop (of which there are 

 tracts in the province of Sao Paulo) with the miniyir 

 unt of labour, aud without the necessity of a rotation 

 of crops, is understood. Again, there certainly are 

 good grazing lands in the west of Sao Paulo and in 

 Minas Geraes, hundreds of miles from the markets, but 

 they cannot compare with the prairies of Rio Grande and 

 the Argentine Republic, hence cannot be counted on as a 

 source of railway prosperity for many years to come. 

 Brazil's chief riches are a few tropical products and her un- 

 worked minerals. Not having the former to carry, a 

 railroad need not be made, and the carriage of precious 

 metal can be done in a few dozen wagons per year, for the 

 heavier metals for some time to come will not enter the 

 markets. To sum up this question of surpassing fertility, 

 Brazil is very like the United States, in being rich and poor 

 as far as her soil goes, but she cannot compete with the 

 States in many things owing to her physical configuration, 

 her rivers in the southern half of the empire being of 

 little use, having only short stretches of navigable water, and 

 being cut up by innumerable rapids and waterfalls ; finally, 

 they chiefly run towards Bolivia and her other western fron- 

 tiers, instead of towards the coast. 



The passenger traffic on nearly all lines in Brazil is 

 carried by one passenger train each way per day, and on 

 some lines this is substituted by a train made up of passen- 

 gers and goods vehicles mixi id, and this is often found to 

 be more than sufficient. Thus it will be seen that the: 

 Brazilian railways h:ive very few of the higher forms of 

 development found on European lines. 



The raison d't'tre of Brazilian lines is not by any means 

 decided by the wants aud necessities of a district, these 

 being too often troated as subordinate to things political, 

 to the convenience of the fortunate owners of a concession 

 carrying with it a general Government guarantee of interest, 

 and to the giving of employment to engineers aud con- 

 tractors. 



Some people have tried to see in the Government guar- 

 anteed lines the plan of a master-mind to serve the wants 

 of the people and districts through which the lines pass 

 or will pass. To ordinary mortals, though, there is about 

 as much of a plan perceivable as there was archaeological 

 significance in the words on the famous stone found by 

 Mr. Pickwick, which proved to be '-Bill Stumps his 

 mark." So with the railways. They are chiefly the 

 results of political manoeuvres, or are forced on by engin- 

 eers and contractors. Were it not so, there would be 

 no need to lament the melancholy fact that eight out 

 of 'en general Government guarantee Hues are almost 

 entirely dependent on the guarantee, and will be so in 

 many cases for a quarter of a century to come. Brazilian 

 railway enterprizes have also another exceedingly hurtful 

 feature, which is, they are cut up into little Hues, most 

 of which are under one hundred miles in length, not one 

 he ing two hundred miles long except the Government 

 Dom Pedro II., which is 450 miles in length. In the 



27 



province of Sao Paulo there are 850 miles of railway in 

 traffic, which belong to eight separated companies, each 

 with its full set of directors and administrative officers — 

 a thing which helps to keep up high freight charges and 

 prevents many conveniences being given to the public owing 

 to high administrative expenses aud other attendant evils. 



First on the list of the proviucial Hues is the Sao Paulo 

 Railway which has paid between 10 and 11 per cent, on 

 its capital besides having repaid to the Government large 

 sums on account of moneys paid at a guarantee of in- 

 terest during construction and shortly afterwards. This 

 line is only 87 miles long, and, as before said, is excep- 

 tionally well situated, for a great part of everything that 

 enters or leaves the province has to pass over its rails. 

 This line, however, only carries about 15(1,000 passengers 

 and 260,000 tons of goods. The large iuterest it pays, 

 though, is due to the ennormous freight charges, probably 

 among the highest in the world. The following are a 

 few of the authorized Government rates levied on the 

 Sao Paulo and other railways of the province: — Textile 

 and general goods, lid. per ton per mile ; railway iron, 

 ironwork for construction, agricultural implements, iron 

 tubes, &c., 5Jd. per ton per mile ; coffee, cotton, sugar, 

 8Jd. per ton per mile ; coal, lime, bricks, manure, 1 4-10d. 

 per ton per mile. With such tremendous charges as these 

 it is not a surprizing thing that three of the lines in the 

 province of Sao Paulo pay very high rates of interest, 

 but the question arises whether, with these still in force, 

 it is possible to have any great development in agricult- 

 ure beyond the growth of one or two such valuable 

 tropical products as coffee and sugar, for what other article 

 of large consumption could bear a freight charge of 8Jd. per 

 ton per mile ? Even coffee in the province of Sao Paulo is not 

 planted beyond a limit already reached, as the transport 

 eats up all .the profits- — iu fact, cases have been known 

 during the recent time of low prices of planters uot only 

 not receiving anything for their inferior qualities of coffee, 

 but their having to pay the agent a sum over and above 

 the price the coffee realized in the market. 



Beyond these generally adopted high charges the; Sao 

 Paulo Railway is allowed to charge for G'87 miles extra 

 on account of the extraordinary work on the Sarra do 

 Mar section of the Hne, which is worked by wire ropes 

 and fixed engines for five miles. This extra mileage, equal 

 to an increase of 7'9 per cent, on the total length of the 

 line, raises the charges per mile to more than lljd on 

 general goods, SJd. on coffee, aud Hd. on lime, coal, 

 &c, rates which may he better appreciated by stating 

 that the charge on a ton of coffee from Jundiahy 

 to Santos is about 61s for 87 miles only, wherea3 

 steamers take coffee from Santos to Europe, a distance 

 of 5,400 miles, for 30s to 40s, aud think themselves well 

 off with 50s a ton. In the foregoing calculations an ex- 

 change of 24d per milreis has been followed. Besides the 

 Sao Paulo Railway there are two native compauies, the 

 Pauli~ta (an unguaranteed line), aud the Mogyana (a pro- 

 vincial guaranteed one), which prolong the Sao Paulo 

 Railway into the interior, and, although having a much 

 less condensed traffic, they pay dividends but slightly in- 

 ferior to the Sao Paulo Company — a result which is due 

 chiefly to their economical construction. Thus the Paulista, 

 a broad-gauge line 160 miles long, cost only £10,000 per 

 mile, and the Mogyana, a metre-gauge lino 1W0 miles 

 long, only cost £4,000 per mile. A comparison between 

 the cost of these lines and others made with English capital 

 will in part explain why, it is that they have paid while 

 the English oues just scrape together enough to defray 

 working expenses, or to pay 1 or 2 per cent, towards the 

 Government guarantee. 



The three lines which have thus far paid large dividends 

 have done so because they tap the chief coffee districts 

 and their dividends have gone up or down just as the 

 coffee crop was large or small. Now, should there be a 

 frost, as in the years 1842 and 1869, when the trees for 

 two or three years afterwards did not bear fruit, or should 

 a disease attack the trees as it has done iu Ceylon, then 

 would these three lines, the best paying ones in Brazil, 

 find it difficult to pay a 3 or 4 per ceut. dividend, seeing that 

 coffee represents 50 to 80 per cent, of their total gross 

 earnings. 



Now, if the lines of the province of Sao Paulo are in this 

 state, rich when the crop is large and poor when it is 

 small, what must be the state of those lines in South 



