BRAZIL 



902 



BRAZIL 



not only healthful but delightful. There are, 

 as in most tropic countries, a wet season and a 

 dry season, but these are not very well marked. 

 Most of the rain, however, falls between Jan- 

 uary and June, while from June to October 

 the weather is comparatively clear and dry. 



In general, Brazil has a very heavy rainfall, 

 only a small region in the interior of the 

 highlands having too little moisture for suc- 

 cessful agriculture. The eastern plateau is well 

 watered, but by far the heaviest rainfall is in 

 the Amazon basin. Near the coast the annual 

 precipitation is from seventy-five to 100 inches, 

 but inland, in the dense forest region, it is 

 estimated that it must be from 300 to 400 

 inches. 



Throughout much of the river country white 

 men find it difficult to live, for the heat and the 

 excessive moisture are fever-breeding, and dis- 

 tances are so great that a man stricken with 

 disease has small chance of getting to a more 

 healthful locality before he dies. 



The Great Forests and the Rubber Industry. 

 There has always hung about the forests of 

 the Amazon a haze of romance, largely because 

 they are so little known, and might, therefore, 

 contain almost anything. Along the Amazon 

 itself, and its chief tributaries, people have 

 traveled for generations, but away from these 

 water highways few adventurers have been 

 daring enough to journey. Great trees of many 

 species, among which palms are prominent, 

 grow to heights of from sixty to one hundred 

 feet, and from their trunks and branches hang 

 tropic vines, with stems as big as a man's arm. 

 Heavy underbrush rises to meet these over- 

 hanging vines, and so makes a growth that is 

 practically impassable. The enterprising trav- 

 eler may cut a trail, but in an amazingly short 

 time it is again overgrown with luxuriant vege- 

 tation, and all traces of it are washed away by 

 the pouring rains. 



In the forest there are monkeys of many 

 kinds, sloths, opossums, pumas and jaguars, 

 while the trees swarm with birds of brilliant 

 plumage. Great snakes, among them the 

 dreaded boa (which see), glide through the 

 underbrush, but are not so numerous as early 

 writers believed. In the rivers are to be 

 found sea-cows and great turtles, the latter 

 valued for their flesh as well as for their eggs. 



The Brazilian forest is by no means all 

 waste, however, for some of the trees are useful 

 and valuable. Dye-wood and Brazil nuts are 

 produced in abundance from the part of the 

 jungle accessible from the rivers; and above all 



else, the famous Para rubber. Rubber produc- 

 tion has long been the chief industry of this 

 part of Brazil, and until the last decade the 

 greater part of the india rubber of the world 

 came from that section. At the present time, 

 however, Africa and the East Indies are pro- 

 ducing fully as much, and it seems possible that 

 with all its natural supply Brazil may not be 

 able to meet the competition of other coun- 

 tries because of the scarcity of laborers and 

 the absence of transportation facilities in the 

 forest section. See RUBBER AND RUBBER MANU- 

 FACTURE; also subhead Business Opportunities, 

 below. 



Brazil's Great Source of Wealth. Brazil has 

 the largest foreign commerce of any of the 

 South American republics, exporting each year 

 over $300,000,000 worth of products; of these, 

 coffee forms over sixty per cent. For Brazil 

 is the great coffee-growing country of the 

 world, producing two-thirds of the world's sup- 

 ply. The industry centers in the state of Sao 

 Paulo, in the southern part, and is of such great 

 importance to the region that the government 

 has taken all possible measures to advance it. 

 The southern states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas 

 Geraes and Sao Paulo, are very different in 

 their general prosperity from the backward, 

 undeveloped states of the interior, and the 

 difference is due to coffee. Practically all the 

 coffee used in the United States and Canada 

 comes from Brazil. 



Other Agricultural Products. There is much 

 fertile land in Brazil, but only a very small 

 portion of it has been put under cultivation. 

 Almost everywhere the most primitive methods 

 of tillage are used. Second to coffee in im- 

 portance is sugar, which is produced in the 

 Atlantic coast states, and next comes cotton, 

 which every state produces to a greater or less 

 extent. Tobacco is also grown, but is of 

 rather inferior quality. 



Brazil has scattered throughout its vast area 

 much excellent grazing land which would make 

 possible the raising of enormous herds of 

 cattle. Three or four of the states have de- 

 veloped the cattle industry, but for the most 

 part the transportation facilities are so limited 

 that it has not been profitable. 



Mining. Once Brazil was the leading country 

 of the world in the production of gold and 

 diamonds, Minas Geraes being especially rich 

 in gold. The source of this earlier gold was 

 chiefly, however, the sand and gravel along 

 the rivers, and such a surface supply could not 

 last long ; while the opening of the fabulously- ' 



