PLANTATIONS 



east of Brazil, and when I came again after three months' absence 

 the pest was already there ! It was a small beetle, which had been 

 imported from Africa, a relative of our pea-beetle ; this coffee-beetle 

 penetrated the "cherries," and both the insect and its grubs 

 destroyed the beans. Since the whole wealth of Sao Paulo consisted 

 of coffee, and various foci of the pest had already been discovered, 

 there was great excitement, and all the newspapers contained daily 

 reports of the damage done. I already felt so much at home in the 

 Portuguese language that I was able to give a lecture before the 

 Agricultural Society, which was then, upon a motion of the Society, 

 forwarded to the Ministry of Agriculture, to be printed and 

 distributed. 



In this lecture I stated that it was certainly advisable to fight a 

 pest by means of sprays and chemical applications, but that one 

 must not be content with these expedients. For even if the planters 

 succeeded in extirpating the coffee-beetle, there was no guarantee 

 that some other and more dangerous pest might not shortly make its 

 appearance. In the State of Parahyba the coffee-scale was already 

 swarming, and against this all chemicals were unavailing. Therefore, 

 while applying all the suitable immediate remedies, one must not 

 forget that the best means of defence lay in the plant itself, just 

 as in man the best prevention of infection and illness is robust 

 health. 



But as that man is healthiest who lives a natural life, so it is with 

 the plants. What is the natural life for a plant or an animal? It must 

 not only have the right soil, the right environment, and proper 

 nourishment; it must also be in constant mutual relations with the 

 living creatures with which it naturally leads a common existence. 

 No plant, no animal, lives for itself alone, but only in community 

 with other living creatures, and in the delicate mechanism of 

 Nature one species depends upon another ; one regulates the multi- 

 plication of another, but also holds its enemies in check. This I shall 

 explain more fully in my next chapter. 



Insects are fought by other insects, and by birds, and therefore 

 these creatures must find their natural environment in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the coffee plantations ; then, by their constant search- 

 ing of the trees, they will hinder the invasion of noxious insects. 

 Birds, however, need trees and thickets in which to nest. Areas of 

 natural landscape must therefore be distributed between the coffee 

 plantations. In Sao Paulo the valleys are particularly suited to the 

 growth of woods and thickets ; no coffee is planted in them, as night 



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