98 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



industry and agriculture is done by the colored man, and inincipally for 

 that reason there is not so much industrial progress in the tropics as in 

 the temperate zones. 



Rio de Janeiro is one of the most beautiful cities in the v.orld. In its 

 natural setting it probably has no superior. Nature has done more for it 

 in the way of scenic beauty that any other place in the civilized world. 

 For a number of years it was a backward city and decidedly unhealthful, 

 but they adopted sanitary and up-to-date methods and it is now a won- 

 derful city in which to live, except in the hot summer months, and dur- 

 ing that period the people of means get out into the mountains or higher 

 elevations. Around the bay they have made a beautiful boulevard, and 

 instead of it being the back door of the city it is the front door. They 

 have developed broad, clean streets and built good public buildings. 

 Among other things they have a million dollar grand opera house, lu 

 fact, they have a grand opera house of that kind in nearly all of the 

 leading cities. It is a municipal enterprise, and one thing that the city 

 does is to give good entertainment for the people. They are a music- 

 loving people and because the municipalities provide beautiful opera 

 houses the prices charged are so moderate that all of the people can attend. 

 Around Rio de Janeiro is situated the coffee country principally, fruits 

 and tobacco to some extent, also cattle and grazing-land. When you get 

 down in that region you find quite a good deal of live stock. Farther to 

 the north there is not much live stock owing to the climate, but toward 

 the southern part of the tropics you find live stock improving in size 

 and quality. Heretofore Brazil has not been looked upon as very much 

 of a stock-producing country, and in all probability in the near future 

 will come to the front as one of the nations producing a great surplus 

 of beef. They have about 22,000,000 cattle there now; they have pastur- 

 ing areas of enormous size, with many of them still untouched, and it 

 is all good grazing land. That is, they are good grazing lands for that 

 region, not the kind we are accustomed to in this country. However, 

 they consider it very good for grazing. 



They have one variety of godula grass for producing fat which is native 

 of that country, altho originally it was not found to a large extent. It 

 has been cultivated and developed very considerably and they are now 

 putting that in, and while it is an exceedingly rank-growing grass, it 

 puts cattle in very good shape. However, the best results come from it 

 when it is pastured. It produces good fat cattle. They bring cattle in 

 from the remote regions and pasture them for a few months on that 

 grass, and it puts them in condition for the market. Their stock 

 wouldn't improve in this country. The only improvement is that which 

 would come from the Hindoo blood to the native stock which they have 

 bred up from the Caribou and the result is a breed of rough, angular 

 cattle. 



Three or four years ago the first packing house was built and last 

 year the second. Prior to that time they had no means of marketing 

 their stock except to dry the beef and put it on the market in the form 

 of "jerked" beef. They would hang it for a long time tied on a fence. 



