86S 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[June i, 1886 



Those who grow cane for distilling had not the 

 ijame expenditure in tire-wood, there was little 

 labour recjuired after the cane was once at the 

 mill, and tliere was generally a good local 

 cousiuuijtion for the spirit which was made up to 

 a proof of 20 or 21 degrees. Cane-growing to 

 sujiply a central factory is quite another thing, 

 both for planters and factory owners, but this 

 I will notice at some other time. 



The principal food of the country consists of beans, 

 jerked beef, jiork, and farinha, the latter can be 

 made from either Indian corn or mandioca. The 

 consumption of the<>e is large over the whole 

 Empire, but there is no part of the latter where, 

 with the exception of jerked beef, they are not 

 produced in quantities to supply the local con- 

 sumption. The town of Eio de Janeiro having 

 a large population requires a large quantity of these 

 provisions. 



To grow corn requires little labour and no agri- 

 cultural skill. The abandoned coffee llelds are cleared 

 wth a bill-hook and burned off ; the corii is planted, 

 by one man going before making small cuts on 

 the ground with a hoc, and another following 

 putting seeds in these cuts and covering up witli 

 the foot. The clearing ot the land with the 

 bill-hook is done in the dry weather, the 

 burning when there is appearance of rain, and 

 the planting after a shower has fallen. 

 Beyond the Serra, Indian corn is planted from 

 Septendjcr to I'ecember, and as a rule one crop 

 a year. Below the Serra the climate is somewhat 

 different, is a little more forcing, and conse- 

 quently in many instances two crops are got, and 

 planting seasons are September, October and January 

 and February and March. Various opinions are 

 held as to which is the best time to plant. 

 Within 10 and lo days after planting a rush of 

 small weeds comes up. These are hoed down, dry 

 weather being chosen for this work. If this weed- 

 ing has been well done, the later weedings are 

 not at all heavy. Many fields have only two 

 weedings but most have three ; one is not always 

 sure of a crop on the lands below the Serra 

 although a failure beyond the Serra is rare ; some- 

 times a month or six weeks of dry weather may 

 come and the corn crop planted at some particular 

 time may be lost. The farmer does not plant all 

 at one time but extends his planting over two 

 mouths cr so ; one half may be killed by the 

 drought and the other half may be all right. In 

 gathering the crop only the heads containing the 

 grain is picked ; the straw is left standing. Different 

 modes arc adopted : some give a basket to eaoli 

 workman and he fills it and carries the heads of 

 corn to the nearest heap, which is beside a track 

 wliere a buliock-cart can come and take the corn 

 to the storehouse ; others have part of the work- 

 men picking and Ihrosving into small heaps and 

 tiiii'iliev pjrt carrying to the large heap. The head 

 nf corn JiaB the dry leaves attached to it when 

 lalten lo the storehouse, and as these form a compa<;t 

 mass round the grains some work is entailed in 

 getting this husk off. Tliis husk is kept on until 

 the corn has to be sent to market, were it is taken 

 off, the grains would heat it not properly dried in 

 the 81111. As a rule those who grow corn for sale 

 sell it a; sojn ai they can after it is picked. 

 It is gcneially sold befere the husk is taken off. 

 The unhusking is generally done in the evening 

 niter daric, on farms where the workmen are 

 slaves, anfl on rainy days, when the work is 

 done liy free labour. To one not accustomed to 

 the work the progress is slow, but a good hand 

 Wnowi; the exucl ;ea( to open and gives the requisite 

 tear and a jerk, and pitchea the clean head into 



ihu Leap, and iq a circle arounil bioi ie (be 



empty husks. These latter are pulled outside and if 

 there are cattle on the place they arc offered 

 to them, if not the husks are burnt outside 

 the storehouse. I believe in the States there arc 

 machines for unhusking Indian corn, but I 

 have not seen any here. The next process 

 is to take the ears off the centre corn, called 

 in English the corn-cob. There are several 

 machines for this, and some driven by steam 

 or water-power do the work admirably. Machines 

 are not much used on the farms. The 

 head is held by one hand and rubbed in the 

 palm of the other, in the latter is often a cob 

 witli the ears off, which saves the palm a little ; 

 some negi'oes do the work very dexterously and 

 laave the cobs clean which a great many machines 

 do not. The clean corn called in Portuguese milho — 

 pronounced " meelyo " (and called in the British 

 African colonies " mealies " from the Portuguese) is 

 put into sacks of eighty litres, each sack weighing 

 about 60 kilos (the weight of a sack of coffee) and 

 sent to the purchaser who may be a storekeeper 

 at the nearest railway-station or the nearest 

 sea port or water carriage port. It is only 

 where railway or water transport is near that 

 corn millio can pay the farmer as a substitute 

 for his former coffee planting, and fortunately 

 for the old coffee planters who first felt 

 the brunt of the coffee destroying pests these 

 have been and are being well extended. There 

 is the Don Pedro Segundo railway which brings 

 in a large ipiantity ; the t'antagala Railway from 

 seaside of Serra-de-mar, not much less ; 

 then there is a large fieet of coasting vessels, both 

 steam and sailing, from the small ports north 

 and south of Rio de Janeiro which bring their 

 quota. We cannot tell exactly what quantity 

 has come from the old coffee districts, but we are 

 safe in calculating that thrte-fourths the consump- 

 tion in the town of Rio de Janeiro is fiom them. 

 In 188.5 by Don Pedro II. railway was brought 



1,01-1,780 sacks. 

 ,, by Cantagala approximately 



2,000,000 „ 

 by coasting vessels 173,377 ,, 



(>,1SS,10H „ 

 The River Plate sent to Hio in 188.5 in addition 

 to above !)8,7lil. The enormous iiuniberof mules 

 used on the tramways in Rio make the coiisurap- 

 tioii so large. The prices ranged from olfliOO to 

 rii)>200 duriug the first six months of the year and 

 from HJS'JO to .51t20O the second. 



Owing to there being an abundance \if farinha 

 de m.in lioca produced on the coast districts there 

 is very Htlle of the c;>in made into corn meal-- 

 or I'lihii -in Rio, and also very little of what is 

 called faiinha'de mliho u.-^ed. Tliis latter is a 

 snbstuice m:ido from Indian corn as follows :— The 

 corn is soaked in water for some days until it is 

 quite .soft, it is then beaten in a wooden mortar 

 into flour. This (lour being damp is dried on a 

 largo iron piate with a giu underneath. It is 

 roasted enough not to brown it. This is eaten 

 along with boiled beans forming, in districts beyond 

 the Serra, a substitute for farinha de mandioca 

 amongst the free class of the population. Fidiii, 

 or the corn made into meal witli a mill-stone, is 

 made into porridge and is, along with beuna which 

 have been boiled in some jerked beef and ] ork, the 

 priucip.il food of the slave in the districts be; o id 

 the Serra and they fatten and keep shinty in it 

 and the beans. This is a food nmr : subsl; nt al 

 than " shore." To use C'oylon language, as a 

 " new product" and substitute for coffee, unless there 

 is a market at hand to sell it right off without much 

 cspcuse iji Irauspoit, it s*::! uol pay. In tbiii 



