M IN AS— SAO FRANCISCO RIVER 103 



forests come closer to the river. These forests contain fine hard woods. 

 Transportation and other expenses of the wood to Rio de Janeiro 

 are calculated to be 100 $000 per cubic metre, whilst the wood can 

 readily be sold at twice that figure in Rio. 



In this district "Succuris," a kind of "boa constrictor," abound. 

 They had recently found one of great length, 10m. and more, which 

 had died through swallowing a " Capybari " (resembles wild pig but 

 is actually a rodent). During the week prior to our arrival five 

 " succuri " snakes had been brought into the town. The skins are 

 used for many purposes. 



Jacare : 364km. from Pirapora, 1,005km. from Joazeira. 



The name of this place means " crocodile." All along the Upper 

 Sao Francisco crocodiles are very numerous. 



We visited two ginneries, both mule, or oxen driven, called 

 here " bolandeiras." One of the gins had worked six years and the 

 other sixteen years without any sharpening of the saws ; each gin 

 had about 20 saws. The proprietor of one ginning factory had a 

 spare set of saws, but he did not consider it necessary to replace the 

 worn-out ones. In one factory they had 2 hand-presses turning out 

 bales of 60 and 80 kilos. One man bought on the basis of an arroba 

 of 15 and the other of 16 kilos. 



In this district " Rim " is cultivated little as it is attacked by 

 insects. The present price, regardless of length of staple, etc., of all 

 seed cottons is 5 $000, but for " Rim," on account of low ginning out- 

 turn, it is 4 $000. 



The only people who know what a good quality of cotton is are 

 the women accustomed to spinning and weaving. The men in the 

 cotton business never dream of looking at the fibre. 



Manga de Japore : (426km. from Pirapora, 943km. from Joazeiro). 



This is the largest cotton exporting port in Minas. We visited a 

 field about 3km. outside the town ; it was a mixture of an American 

 kind, much hybridized, and the black seeded cotton, known here as 

 " Maranhao," which is the same as " Creoula " in the south. The 

 hybrid American was, in places, long, about 30mra. and strong ; in 

 others it was very short. The Maranhao was not yet ripe. 



In a ginning factory we saw a gin with 18 saws which had worked 

 without attention to the saws for ten years. The pile of seed in the 

 factory from last year was all a mixture. 



" Rim " is not much cultivated here and from what we could 

 see and learn the American kinds of cotton seem to do better in this 

 zone than any other varieties. This is quite contrary to the experience 

 of the southern parts visited by us. People say that the American 

 herbaceous kinds withstand insects better than the others. 



Prior to Manga we stopped a short time at Morrinha, where 

 spinning and weaving are carried on to some extent by the women. 



Almost every household along the Sao Francisco River has in 

 the garden a primitive funnel made of wooden sticks, each about 

 four feet long, in which wood ashes are filtered, in this way providing 

 potash. Vegetable oil is added and the mixture serves as soap. 



