64: CULTIVATION OF COFFEE IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 



liance in endeavoring to stimulate yet further the production 

 by means of premiums for the most improved machinery and 

 inventive skill devoted to its culture and preparation. 



The great coffee region is on the banks of the Rio Parahiba 

 and in the province of San Paulo ; but every year it is more 

 widely cultivated, and a considerable quantity is now grown in 

 provinces farther northward. It can be planted by burying 

 the seeds or berries (which are double), or by slips. The 

 plants which have been taken from the nursery with balls of 

 mould around their roots will bear fruit in two years ; those 

 detached from the earth will not produce until the third year, 

 and the majority of such shrubs die. In the province of San 

 Paulo and the richest portions of Minas-Geraes one thousand 

 trees will yield from 2,560 to 3,200 pounds ; in Rio de Janeiro, 

 from 1,600 to 2,560. In some parts of San Paulo, one thousand 

 trees have yielded 6,400 pounds; but this is rare. In the 

 province of Rio de Janeiro, trees are generally cut down every 

 fifteen years ; there are some cafiers, however, which continue 

 to bear several years longer. As a general rule they are not 

 allowed to exceed eight feet in height, so as to be in reach. 

 There are three gatherings in the year, and the berries are 

 spread out upon pavements, or level portion of ground (the 

 terrene*), whence they are taken when dry, and denuded of the 

 hull by machinery, and afterward conveyed to market. 



In Brazil, coffee is planted in the following manner : "The 

 fresh beans are sown generally in the shade of coffee-trees, and 

 the little plants are taken up, with the earth about them, so 

 soon as they have reached the height of twelve inches. They 

 are so planted that the stems are from four to six feet apart. 

 By cutting off the rankest shoots, the coffee-trees in plantations 

 are prevented becoming more than twelve feet in height, that 

 the fruit which ripens in the 20th, or even not till the 32d 

 month after the transplantation, may be the more easily 



