235 



Brazil which yields some 9,000,000 to 15,000,000 bags. The 

 limited demand for the quantity produced caused a crisis in recent 

 years owing to bumper crops and over-production. Since then 

 there have been schemes to restrict production, but these have 

 only taken effect in the State of Sao Paulo, in which State alone 

 can any official statistics on this subject be obtained. 

 Sao Paulo is the principal coffee district. 



LABOUR. 



The conditions of labour are different in each locality. It may, 

 however, be calculated that men earn about $2 a day and women 

 $1 beside food. " Colonials " or those labourers established on 

 the estate receive land and a certain number of trees in lieu of 

 wages ; others have an interest in the crop. The labour is chiefly 

 Italian and negro, and is bad and scarce. Immigration is required, 

 but has been so badly treated that it is discouraged. Owing to 

 extravagance, the planters are mostly in difficulties and do not pay 

 wages when due, or the men are fleeced by the truck system. It 

 is possible for the labourers to live by the cultivation of their own 

 plots. The work on the estate takes some nine months of the 

 year. 



Note. — I melries = 2s. 2'934d. formerly, now Is. 5d. say Re. I 

 cts. 6. 



CULTIVATION. 



It is only the principal coffee districts which are comprised in 

 the newspaper reports ; and there are large tracts of land 

 unplanted and suitable for coffee, and these lands are likely to 

 remain unplanted until the demand for coffee increases. It would 

 probably not be practicable to obtain land for coffee-planting 

 where restriction is in force, nor under the circumstances would it 

 be likely to be profitable. There are extensive railways through 

 the principal coffee districts, the rates vary but are high. 



Old fazendas are abandoned and not cultivated, but coffee is 

 picked when the trees happen to yield. When the trees no longer 

 bear, the plantation is abandoned, and as the land is privately 

 owned it does not revert to Government, nor is it taxed. Coffee 

 trees yield berries up to 30 years. After bumper crops the next 

 crop or two is smaller. Land in Sao Paula in some districts pro- 

 duces 3 or 4 times as much as that in Rio de Janeiro. There does 

 not seem to be any extension of planting, and that planting is to 

 replace those trees that go out of bearing. There is not much 

 planted that has yet to come into bearing. Trees begin to bear' 

 three years after planting. In Rio the land is hilly, and in Sao 

 Paulo undulating and flat, with a red soil. There is some heavy 

 forest and much scrub, and the undergrowth is very thick, with 

 creepers, thorns and grass ; heavy timber is found in the forests. 



SYSTEM. 



The cost of production and placing at local railway stations 

 may be estimated at f4"3000 a bag of 60 kilos (or 132^ lbs.) 



From " The Tropical Agiimdturist" July 15, 1906. p. 74. 



