October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURISr, 



251 



a sickle, which, known as celfador, segador or segaJeira 

 dynamica, is to be had for three or four milrei^. The 

 ground is loosened merely on the surface— or deeper 

 where the ground is less steep— with the euxada or 

 patjol. In order to arrest the slow but constant wash- 

 ing down of the alluvial soil, or rather to make up 

 tor It in some degree, the loose earth and weeds are 

 heaped up round the rows of shrubs. But even this 

 work IS lor the most part done injudiciously. 



Instead of heaping the loosened earth and weeds 

 horizontaUy against the slope, and thus forming by 

 degrees a sort of terrace, people heap them in transverse 

 l^ues, consequently along the slope of the mountain, 

 They acknowledge the inefficiency of the method, 

 which IS finding more favour of late years in the 

 district of Oantagallo, and that it is tuo hard work 

 to be demanded of the already over-worked slav.;8. 

 In the Santos Zone, where the coffee-shrub yield 

 aimost double the average produce of the p!ant in 

 the Kio zone, plantations are attended to with greater 

 care. As a rule the cafesaes there are dressed with 

 the enxada (carpa) five times a year. In the draw- 

 ing up of agreements, at least, this is one of the 

 first conditions laid upon the colonist. On plantations, 

 however, worked by slave-labour alone, where the 

 same error had been committed as in the Eio z)ne, 

 the soil cannot be turned over more thai twice or 

 thrice a year. The capinar is also resorted to ia S. 

 Paulo, but only by way of preparation for the carpa, 

 or digging of the soil, and not as in the Bio zone 

 instead of that process. 



The laying out of new gardens can here and there 

 be agreed for by the job with mineiros or natives 

 of JImas Geraes, who now and then establish themselves 

 in a place. The owner hands over to those people 

 a cafesal planted by slaves, on pondi'ion that they 

 keep and dress the young trees carefully during four 

 successive years, receiving in payment a lump ^um cf 

 from 300 to 400 reis, that is to say, from Tid to 9id 

 per shrub. - * 



Those people are bound to fill up falhas or gaps, 

 caused by the death of young trees, with new mudas 

 In return, they -ire entitled, during the four years 

 they have charge of the garden, to plant between the 

 coffee-shrubs everything they require for their own 

 consomption. 



The following crops are usually planted between 

 the coffee-trees in both zones: — 



a. Turkish wheat or milho, against the months of 

 September, October and November. 



b. Beans or feyaoes (black in the Eio and red in 

 the Santos zone) agamst February and ilarch. 



c. C'assave or mandii^ca, against the same time.* 

 Although in several districts the sugar-cane is also 



planted between the coffee-shrubs, this is not so 

 general as the cultivation of the three articles of 

 food mentioned above. The sugar-cane, rice (that is 

 the Javanese padi gogo or mountain rice), the various 

 sorts of batatas and other tubers for feeding pigs, 

 are in the Eio zone grown in the valleys between 

 the morros ; in the Santos zone, near the cafesaes. 

 Plantains are never grown in the gardens, but, like 

 the orange-trees (laranjelras) and cajueiros (Anacardium 

 occidentaie, Linn.), along the garden paths. The 

 dressing of the above-mentioned plants is of course 

 beneficial to the coffee-gardens. It is a curious sight 

 to see these turmas or gangs of slaves working in 

 the fields. A turma consists usually of from 20 to 

 25 slaves, male and female, under charge of a feitor 



When the price of coffee is high and the harvest 

 large, sugar is bought ready for use, and not manu- 

 facture.! from the sugar cane. On the fazendas the 

 cut canes are left lying, and prepared as they are 

 wanted during four or five years. If it is not planted 

 in the cafesaes, the cane may be left from 16 to 20 

 years ! The mandioc, the Indian obi dander or sinkong, 

 may be left three or four years in the field ; it is 

 harvested as it is wanted, so that this crop, which, like 

 maize and beans, is easy to harvest, is regularly 

 cultivated by the slaves. On moist lands the mandioc 

 cannot he left so long, at the utmost two years 



or overseer, who is generally himself a slave Every 

 turma has a male or female cook, who prepares their 

 food on the spot. If several turmas have to work 

 together (I have seen gangs of from 100 to 125 souls) 

 there is a Portuguese overseer, often termed admin- 

 istrador, to superintend the work. As the enxa f/as 

 are provided with very long handles, with which 

 moreover they do not make such a sharp angle as 

 the Javanese patjol, the slaves work almost standing, 

 and mostly m a row. The work is constantly accoiu 

 panied with a soft monotonous chant or quaver- oalv 

 during the ro9ar in the forest, I have often heard 

 them singing and shouting. If anybody conies to see 

 the work, or passes the field, they always greet him 

 in chorus, with the words, " Louvado seja Nosso 

 Senbor Jesu Ohristo!" (Blessed be our Lord Jesus 

 Uhrist :) on which the other answer .- "Para sempre '" 

 (for ever 1). If one meets a slave alone on the road 

 or in the field, he or she will stretch out the open 



>>'°;,.'!^'°^a'4f'"*°^'";,°®r' ('^''eise, they pronounce 

 itj— that IS Bless me" and stand still till the answer 

 "Dios vos aben(;oe-Ihe (God bless you!) gives pr-rmis- 

 sionfo pass on. To return from coffee-planting to 

 the cultivation of provisions, it may be accepted as 

 a rule that, as long as space permits, provisions will 

 be planted between the coffee-shrubs, and that the 

 whole year through. On this account new gardens 

 must occasionally belaid out. As I have already said 

 plantations in the Bio zone suffer greatly from the 

 morros being denuded of their alluvial crust This 

 incessant waste causes the trees to undergo a perceptible 

 change at the end of 12 or 15 years. The washing 

 away of the soil bares the foot of the trunk to 

 I such a degree that one can distinctly see that the 

 shrub is not formed of from 10 to 15 coffee-plants 

 I as I thought at first, but of one compound trunk' 

 I that IS of from 2 to 4 mudas grown togeihe The 

 i part bared often stands from 10 to 20 centimeters 

 I above the ground. Now, when we reflect thai; the 

 mudas were originally planted in hollows or fcooped 

 I pits from 10 to 15 cen»imet«rs deep, we mu,-,t be 

 , convinced that in the course of 12 or 15 years the 

 alluvial crust has become shallower by from 20 to 

 3.5 centimeters; that is to say from 1 to 1? palmos. 

 Another reason has been pointed out to me why the 

 foot of the coffee-shrub is bared f.o nmcli. As the 

 Brazilians have not the custom to pull the loi.ts 

 as much as possible out of the ground, they giartu.-.Uy 

 putrify, and make the soil looser and more porous 

 The rains press down the soil, so that it tinks on 

 the whole; so that the baring of the foot of the 

 tree mu.st not be attributed altogether to the wa-hing 

 away of the soil. 



However this may be, it is a fact that the older 

 the gardens are, the more the roots of the coffee- 

 shrubs stand out above the soil. 



Owing to this gradual exposure of the topmost 

 fibres, the plantations begin to suffer greatly after 

 they have reached the age of 15 or 1& years. The 

 shrubs assume all manner of forms. They no longer 

 wax so full and luxuriant, no longer preserve an 

 equal proportion of breadth to length, but begin to 

 change into saias and pernudos. 



Bv saias are meant the coffee-trees that at a height 

 of 3 or 4 palmos produce a large number of secondary 

 branches, which gradually get entangled with each 

 other and form a sort of petticoat or crinoline about 

 the trunk. Tliis petticoat or saia is the more con- 

 spicuous, because the upper part of the shrub is 

 quite naked, or bears at the very top a green phime, 

 which, as a rule, is heavier or lighter according as 

 the plantations happen to be noiiteijai or soalheiros. 

 The pernndos are those coffee-shrubs that have few 

 or no branches close to the ground, but branch out 

 largely farther up. 



The leafless pernudos present the exact appearance 

 of gigantic inverted besoms or tagsvurai. 



By far the greater number of saias are found on 

 soalheiro lands. 



I could obtain no satisfactory explanation of thU 

 phenomenon, universal as it is throughout tjie Kio 

 zone. 



