SAO PAULO—COFFEE 93 



month. Only recognised feast days are observed. No colonist is 

 allowed to leave the estate without permit. The colonist may buy 

 his own requirements where he likes ; he is not allowed to open a 

 shop. Insubordination, habitual drunkenness or carelessness in work 

 are justified causes for dismissal. Notice to leave must be given 

 before June 20th. 



In the coffee zone there is always a scarcity of labour and often 

 the amount of land allowed to the colonist for his own use makes 

 all the difference between lack of labour and an ample supply. 



On an up-to-date plantation the cherries are put in a trough and 

 washed (a good sup^^ly of water is available in most places in Sao 

 Paulo), and carried by means of water channels to the puljiing machine 

 {" despolpador ") which removes the fleshy part of the cherry, to be 

 used later as manure, and leaves the berries free ; they are at this 

 stage still covered with a parchment skin. On leaving this machine 

 the beans drop again in a water channel which conducts them to 

 drying platforms (" terreiros ") where they are spread out and exposed 

 to the heat of the sun. When dry, they are taken to the huller 

 machine (" descascador "") where the parchment skin is easily removed 

 through the action of rollers, from there they pass to a fan which blows 

 the skins and impurities away and finally they are classified according 

 to size into six different grades ; on some " fazendas " polishing 

 machines are used. The coffee is packed in bags of 60 kilos. 



The reader will see that man}^ are the processes before the coffee 

 bean is ready to leave the plantation which explains the statement 

 previously made that coffee requires more labour than cotton. 



When the bags reach Santos or Rio de Janeiro (the former is the 

 principal coffee port), tliey are delivered to large warehouses where 

 each bag is sampled on delivery. The coffee is then graded into 

 eleven classes, of which number seven represents " good average," 

 various deliveries are mixed together, the small beans are again 

 separated from the large ones and the beans are then ready for being 

 filled into bags. The machinery used for these various treatments 

 consists mostly of sieves, automatic transporters and shoots. 



On arrival at port 9 jier cent, ad valorem export duty is payable. 



Coffee is the great national drink throughout Brazil, almost at 

 every street corner one finds a cafe where a small cup of coffee is sold 

 at the low rate of 100 reis (— fd. with exchange at 7d.) and no tips 

 are given. This has been the standard price of a cup for many years 

 whether exchange was high or low. 



There is no other product of Brazil which is so carefully graded 

 as the coffee of Sao Paulo. The coffee grown in the other States of 

 Brazil does not undergo this kind of classification, the quantity being 

 so small, it would not pay to instal the necessary machinery. 



