October t, i88j.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



249 



BRAZIL AND JAVA: 



REPORT OS THE COFFEE CULTURE IN 



AMERICA, ASIA AND AFRICA. 



BT K. F. VAX DELDEN LAEUVE 



In our February Number we gave a short uotice 

 of this importaut work. Since that appeared, the 

 tnglish version, then mentioned as in the press, has 

 been pubhshed,* and the handsome volume lies now 

 before us. Printed iu Royal Octavo, it occupies 637 

 pages, besides plates, maps and diagrams. 



As we said before, the writer treats the subject 

 of coftee-culture well nigli exhaustively. To the extract 

 we gave in our former number we now wish to 

 add a passage taken from Chapter X., on the Coffee- 

 culture in Brazil, to show our readers how thoroughly 

 the writer enters into the merits of his subject. 



After treating in a previous chapter the state of 

 Brazil as to her Revenues, E.xports and Imports, 

 means of conveyance (roads, shipping, etc.). Weights, 

 Measures, Coins, etc., Coffee-Trade in its special aspects, 

 the author treats in Chapter X. Coffee Planting. 

 In a general view he discusses the different soils, 

 whicli m so extensive an area are of course very 

 various, their capabalities for coffee and other cultures, 

 the mariagement and arrangement of the estates, and 

 the differeut sorts of coffee produced. Moreover 

 Lands, Fazeudas: Clearing, Division into gardens, 

 Garden paths, Terraces. He then proceeds to 

 riaiiUtig, A itrseiy-Beds. Space btUccen Plants, Trees 

 yieldimj slmde, Dressiny, Manure Diseases and 

 Enemies of the Cqfiee-shnib 

 u I'w if """It *''?, P'='"ters, of the Rio and Santos, 

 both follow the old ancestral custom of transplanting 

 three or four-year-old mudas or seedlings out of the 

 gardens. ° 



The mudas are pulled by hand out of the ground, 

 which bas previously been slightly loosened. If the 

 tap-root does not break at once, then part of it is 

 cut off, care being taken, however, not to injure the 

 hbrous roots more than can be avoided 



The plant itself is also lopped to a height of 1 or 

 Li palmos (22 to 23 centimeters). The stumps, about 

 as thick as a man s finger, are conveyed to the gardens 

 in baskets covered with leaves, by the slaves charged 

 %'";,*'»e planting of them. On the broken ground 

 ot the Kiozoue this is performed iu the followmg 

 way:-On the piece of ground to be planted, a 

 quantity of earth IS scooped out ou the face of the 

 incline Ihis is done with the enxada, an mstrument 

 resembling the Javanese pat/ol, but almost twice the 

 size and furni.shed with a handle six feet long By 

 this means a small spot of level ground is obuined, 

 a kmd of tmy terrace, or as it is called in Java, a 

 little petak. Ou this are planted two or three muda 

 s uraps su!« by side or in a triangle. The earth 

 that has been scooped out is now heaved above 

 the level spot, and pre.ssed down a httle: it is 

 meant for a temporary dyke to shelter the mudas 

 from the streaming ram-water. Gradually, however, 

 these grooves are filled up again by the earth of t he dyke 



i. it. T u '"f P™1?"' ,*^ 5"°"°^ plant', as far as 

 18 practicable from the heat of the sun, some dried 

 or charred boughs and chips of wood, or leafv twigs, 

 are piled up about them. . e > 



For the last three 01 four years pepinieres have 

 been making for the new plantations; or, to speak 

 more coi-rectly, for the necessary substitutes. The 

 use of pepinieres. however, i.s not so general as Dr. 

 touty seems to beheve. 



The reason why planters have pepinit-res made 

 now IS simply this : that in former days there was 

 no time for it ; now there is. Four or five years ago, 

 ^^^1 i L P'-'^°t»t»°°'' were constants being extendid 

 so that there were no hands to spare; now the -e is 

 very little more planting done than is necessary to 

 keep up the e,xisting cafesaes. 



People shrink from the thought of laying out new 

 gardens „ow, not only because of tlio low price obtained 

 for c offee, which of itself p aialyses_thehKlustrv 



, * Y'- H.Allen &O0., 13, AVa'terloo I'Uco, Tall 1m,' 

 JLondon. 



but because they are no longer certain of being able 

 to gather the fruit of their labours. The scarcity of 

 labourers is making itself felt more and more, especially 

 now that the traffic iu slaves between the northern 

 and southern provinces is rendered pr.actically im- 

 possible by the levying of provincial export-duties 

 amoimting to from p. st. 160 to p. st. 200 per slave. 

 There is thus more leisure, more opportunity for 

 careful plantiug. 



But the reader will make a great mistake if ho fancies 

 that the Brazilian Pi-piiiiijres resemlile the carefully- 

 constructed, solicitously-tended, nurserybeds of .Java. 

 I have seen three sorts of nursery-beds. The first 

 consists of a less or more open spot on the skirts of 

 the capoerao or not very dense wood, where all the 

 youug mudas from 10 to 20 months old, that can be 

 got uold of iu the gardens, are stuck into the ground. 

 A collection of those plants of unequal age is called 

 a nursery bed or \-iveiro. The more advanced coffee- 

 planters, those that pa,ss for specialists, obtain their 

 viveiros by direct sowing. In the middle ot the 

 capoeirao, for the matta virgem or virgin forest is 

 too shady for the purpose, they have the ground dug, 

 and plant the coffee-beaus in rows or strips of from 

 1 to li palmos broad. If all the trees come up, the 

 rows are a little thinned out, but even after this 

 process, these crowds of little plants jostling each 

 other present a very strange appearance. In viveiros 

 of this stamp, clods containing from 10 to 20 plants 

 are dug up. These clods are placed in square wooden 

 boxes, and conveyed to the plautation in heavy carts. 

 There the seedlings are removed from the clod ' one 

 by one, or torn out of it, and planted in the way 

 described above. I must, however, note in passiug, 

 that I saw this comparatively careful method of plant- 

 ing on only a very few fazeudas, such as 8. Clement, 

 Matta Porcos, Bella Vista (Oantagallo). A third sort 

 of viveiros are those that are made in the gardens 

 themselves between the coffee-shrubs. Such viveiros, 

 however, do not contain more than 25 to 50,000 

 plants. On the fazeuda Sete Quedas in the Santos 

 zone I saw viveiros of this last mentioned kind, 

 which were laid out after a new method. The scattered 

 seedlings were brought from the gardens into the 

 viveiro, but in such a way that every group of 5 or 

 6 mudas made as it were a whole, and were from 

 Ik to 2 palmos distant from the next group. When 

 transplanted into the new garden, or taken to fill 

 gaps iu a 1 old cafe.sal, those mudas, now two or three 

 years old, are not taken from the ground one by one, 

 but form by their groups of five or six a clump of 

 earth, which is transferred to a pit three palmos 

 deep by three palmos in diameter. This pit has been 

 prepared by slaves six or eight months previously. 

 When the plants are placed iu it, it is not quite 

 closed. People only fill up the crevices between the 

 clump of earth and the pit. In this w.ay, I am 

 assured, the fruit-bearing is expedited by the timely 

 arresting of the growth of the plant. But this 

 advantage is counterbalanced by the great disadvant- 

 age, that this way of planting takes a great deal of 

 time, and is consequently very costly. For, while one 

 slave can in one day plant from 400 to 450 ot these 

 pulled and lopped mudas, he cannot possibly transport 

 more than 70 or 80 clumps. In the Santos Zone, 

 on the fazenda Hicaba, I' saw coffee-shrubs planted 

 iu yet another manner. The first step there is to 

 dig a pit from 2 to 2i palmos square, and of equal 

 depth. It is immediately filled up half a palnio with 

 the earth that has been thrown out, which the slave 

 presses down a little. Then a mudas slump is taken 

 and placed at one of the corners of the pit, in such 

 a way as to allow the fibres to spread out. After 

 these have been covered with a little earth, a second 

 mudas is plauted,and .so on till there is one at each 

 of the four comers. 



The earth, which is now shovelled in, is stamped 

 down by the slave .vitli both his feet. Iu this way 

 the pit is halt filled up again. The ])Ianted hollow is 

 still from half a palnio to a paliiio deep, and remained 

 uulevelled. At the same time .sonic dry grass or 

 leaves are heaped in and aroaud the pit, to prerent 



