1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



307 



for rum, and such are sent to the fountains and to 

 the Praya accoutered as that old -woman is." 



With a friend I went to Consulado, a depart- 

 ment of the Customs having charge over exports. 

 Gangs of slaves came in continually, with coffee for 

 shipment. Every bag is pierced, and a sample 

 withdrawn while on the carrier's head, to deter- 

 mine the quality and dutj'. The tariff, based on the 

 market price, is regulated every Saturday. 



Every gang of coffee-carriers has a leader, who 

 commonly shakes a rattle, to the music of which 

 his associates behind him chant. The load weigh- 

 ing 160 lbs., rests on the head and shoulders, the 

 body is inclined forward, and the pace is a trot, or 

 half ruu. Most are stout and athletic, but a few 

 are so small and so slightly made that one wonders 

 how they manage to keep up with the rest. The 

 average life of a coffee-carrier does not exceed ten 

 years. In that time the work ruptures and kills 

 them. They have so much a bag, and what they 

 earn over the sum daily required by their owners 

 they keep. Except four or five, whose sole dress 

 was short canvass skirts without sleeves, all were 

 naked from the waist upward, and from the knee 

 below ; a few had on nothing but a towel round 

 the loins. Their rich chocolate skins shone in the 

 sun. On returning, some kept up their previous 

 chant, and ran as if enjoying the toil ; others went 

 more leisurely, and among them, some noble-look- 

 ing fellows stepped with much natural grace. 



A gang of fourteen slaves came past with enor- 

 mously wide but shallow baskets on their heads. 

 They were unloading a barge of sea-coal, and con- 

 veying it to a foundry or forge. The weight each 

 bore appeared equal to that of a bag of cofl'ee (160 

 lbs.) This mode of transporting coal has one ad- 

 vantage over ours, since the material is taken di- 

 rectly from the vessel to the place where it is con- 

 sumed. As with the coal, so with every thing ; 

 when an article is once mounted on the head of a 

 negro, it is only removed at the place where it is to 

 remain. 



A couple of slaves followed the coal-carriers, 

 each perspiring under a pair of the largest sized 

 blacksmith bellows — a load for a horse and cart, 

 with us. A week ago I stood to observe eight oxen 

 drag an ordinary wagon-load of building-stone for 

 the Capuchins up the steep Castle hill ; it was 

 straining work for them to ascend a few rods at a 

 time ; to-day I noticed a similar load of stone dis- 

 charged at the foot of the ascent, and borne up on 

 negroes' heads. 



No wonder that slaves shockingly crippled in 

 their lower limbs, are so numerous. There wad- 

 dled before me, in a manner distressing to behold, 

 a man whose thighs and legs curved so far outward 

 that his trunk was not over fifteen inches from the 

 ground. It appeared sufficiently heavy, without 

 the loaded basket on his head, to snap the osseous 

 stem and drop between his feet. I observed anoth- 

 er whose knees crossed each other, and his feet 

 Ereternaturally apart, as if superincumbent loads 

 ad pushed his knees in instead of out. The lamp- 1 

 lighter of the Cattete district exhibits another vari- 

 ety. His body is settled low down, his feet are i 

 drawn both to one side, so that his legs are paral- ' 

 lei at an angle of thirty degrees. The heads of 

 Africans are hard, their necks strong, and both, 

 being perpendicular to the loads they are called 

 to support, are seldom injured. It is the lower 

 parts of the moving columns, where the weights 



are alternately thrown on and off the jointed thighs 

 and legs, that are the weakest. These necessarily 

 are the first to give way under excessive burdens ; 

 and here are examples of their having yielded and 

 broken down in every direction. — Ewbank's Life in 

 Brazil. 



THE SOIL— FOOB OF PLANTS. 



The sustenance of vegetables, their habits and 

 modes of existence, constitutes the subject of one of 

 the most remarkable works to which the present 

 age has given birth. We allude to that of LiEBiG on 

 "Organic Chemistry, applied to the Science and 

 Art of Agriculture." The path which this distin- 

 guished philosopher has travelled with so much 

 honor to himself, and such lasting benefit to his 

 fellow-men, had been partially explored by his 

 predecessors, who had investigated the nature of 

 plants and soils, but the results of their labors and 

 experiments were isolated and detached, and when 

 collected, seemed, from their very nature, and the 

 manner in which they had been obtained to per- 

 plex rather than enlighten. From these, with true 

 German ingenuity and genius, Liebig has con- 

 structed a rational and comprehensive theory of 

 vegetable life, — one that effectually lifts the soil 

 from the hitherto concealed and inscrutable fea- 

 tures of the mysterious, and lays bare to the com- 

 prehension of the most irrecondite student, the 

 mechanism of that system, the operations of which 

 are at once so beautiful and so august. 



From Liebig, Johnston, Sprengel, and others, 

 who have entered of late with so much zeal upon 

 the important subject, we ascertain a multitude of 

 facts of the utmost practical importance in the 

 prosecution of agricultural enterprises; for in- 

 stance, that all soils contain a certain proportion of 

 organic matter, chiefly of vegetable origin, though 

 in some cases mixed with animal organizations ; 

 that this matter is combustible, and, consequently, 

 is destroyed by fire ; that in some soils this com- 

 bustible matter often amounts to fifty or sixty per 

 cent, of the entire weight, while in others, less than 

 one per cent, is recognizable ; that in all combusti- 

 ble soils, or those which ai-e endued in an ordinary 

 degree with the capacity of vegetable reproduction, 

 the actually combustible portions consist of from 

 ten to twelve different mineral constituents ; that 

 the absence of one or more of these constituents, 

 renders the soil to a certain extent infructuous, and 

 incapable of producing affluent, or even ordinary 

 crops ; that to such soils as are characterized by 

 this deficiency, the constituents wanting to perfect 

 the equihbrium or adjust the balance of elements, 

 may be artificially supplied; that the excess of 

 some of these principles, is, oftentimes, productive 

 sterility, and must consequently be counteracted or 

 removed, before the cultivator can reduce them to 

 a profitable condition, and secure from them an ad- 

 equate remuneration for his toU. 



