38 



The Brazilians dry the beans with the skin on. In the 

 process of drying, the skin first becomes dark, and finally 

 black, and when crisp, is rubbed off the bean, which is 

 then washed. In this process, however, there is great danger 

 of fermentation. The skin contains a vast amount of saccha- 

 rine matter, and successful attempts have been made to 

 extract from it sugar and spirit; but either through poor 

 machinery, or other mismanagement, it was found to be un- 

 profitable, and the experiment was abandoned. The skin is 

 exceedingly sweet, almost as much so to the taste as the 

 sugar-cane. 



The coffee-plant can be propagated from the seed, but the 

 most prevalent method in Brazil is by young plants, which may 

 be had by the thousand on old plantations. The young shrub 

 is taken up in August generally when it is about two years 

 old and planted in good soil. The fourth year it produces 

 coffee, and the fifth year it commences to bear regular crops, 

 the yield being from a pound and a half to three pounds per 

 tree. Trees have been know r n to last for many years on good 

 rich soil, and some on Mr. Moke's plantation are still bear- 

 ing which were planted < forty years ago ; on hill-sides, how- 

 ever, where the soil is light, the plant decays in the course 

 of eight or ten years. The picking season commences in 

 July, and in the low lands generally concludes by the end of 

 August ; among the hills, however, where there are frequent 

 showers, and where there is much shade, the season does not 

 close until some time in September. 



The four coffee-growing provinces of Brazil, properly 

 speaking, are Rio de Janeiro, San Paulo, Minas, and Bahia. 

 In the two former the agriculturists have for some time past 

 directed their attention almost exclusively to this article. In 

 Bahia its cultivation is steadily, although slowly, increasing. 

 Coffee is grown in the provinces of Maranham, Parana, and 

 St. Catherine's, but only to a very small extent, the amount 



