CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE — PIERSON 



65 



fazenda in individual houses. The men work by 

 the day and are paid from 20 to 25 cruzeiros. In 

 addition, 10 other families live on the fazenda, 

 each of whom is allotted 2 alqueires (12 acres) to 

 be worked at a rental of a third of the production. 

 The administrator lists the present nmnber of 

 livestock as 82 horses, 500 cattle, 20 mules and bur- 

 ros, 47 hogs, and 20 sheep. Under cultivation are 

 120 acres of maize and about 3 acres each of sweet- 

 potatoes, manioc, and bananas. There is an ele- 

 mentary school of three grades, with 42 pupils 

 matriculated, all of whom live on the fazenda. 



The owner of the second fazenda lives in Sao 

 Paulo and his administrator is engaged at present 

 in turning the land into pasture. The property 

 comprises 136 alqueires, or 816 acres. On the fa- 

 zenda, in the largest house on the property, live 

 the administrator and his wife and seven children, 

 aged from 1 to 15 years. Two camaradas, or hired 

 hands, have living quarters nearby. In 12 other 

 houses scattered over the fazenda, reside 66 other 

 persons, including 24 adults and 42 children. Each 

 of these families tends a small plot of land, rang- 

 ing in size from li/^ acres to 24 acres. Work con- 

 tracts vary. Two families pay a third of their 

 crop as rent and two families pay a fourth. The 

 families that pay a third receive seed and have 

 their land plovi ed at the expense of the owner ; the 

 families that pay a fourth, receive no assistance 

 of this sort. Five other families pay a cash rental 

 yearly of 400 cruzeiros per alqueire, or about $3.68 

 per acre. Two families are furnished houses and 

 the use of li/o and 4i/2 acres of land, respectively, 

 for 2 3'ears without charge as a return for helping 

 clear the land of timber and underbrush in prepa- 

 ration for seeding it to pasture. The mother of 

 one of the hired hands is given food and a house 

 to live in for working occasionally for the owner. 

 All contracts are verbal. 



The third fazenda lies at the edge of the village, 

 the sede, or headquarters, with the principal farm 

 buildings, being located about 200 yards back of 

 the village church. The fazenda comprises 360 

 alqueires, or 2,152 acres. The owner lives in Sao 

 Paulo and the fazenda is in charge of a resident 

 administrator. The latter lives with his wife and 

 two small sons in a large farmhouse at the sede. 

 Nearby live two men who assist with the work of 

 the fazenda, together with their families. There 

 are 16 other houses scattered over the farm, in 



which live 34 adults and 15 children. On the 

 fazenda reside, therefore, 64 persons, or 40 adults 

 and 24 children. Native timber is being cut off 

 and trucked to the nearest point on the railroad 

 or to a nearby town and sold for firewood, and 

 the land thus cleared is being turned into pasture. 

 Approximately 240 acres have been cleared, and 

 about twice that acreage still remains uncut. Most 

 of the men living on the fazenda are engaged in 

 this work. Three families are renters, each of 

 whom pays a third of his crop for a house and 

 a small plot of land. At present, there are 45 

 head of cattle on the fazenda. Forty-six acres are 

 in cultivation, the largest acreage being in maize. 



The fourth property is, in fact, only in process 

 of being built up into a fazenda. At present, it is 

 composed of four separate pieces of land, each 

 located at some distance from the others. The 

 sede, with its farmhouse and other principal build- 

 ings, is on the largest of these plots of land, com- 

 prising 371 acres, one parcel of which is owned 

 by the farmer's wife. It is located at the side of 

 the road that runs from the village to Boa Vista. 

 The owner lives here with his family, which is 

 composed of 10 adults and 3 children. In addi- 

 tion, four unmarried men live near the farmhouse, 

 each of whom works by the month for 650 

 cruzeiros and is furnished a house and a small plot 

 of land to till. Aside from these small plots, and 

 a 6-acre patch of cane, all the land on this part of 

 the property is given over to pasture. There are 

 approximately a hundred head of cattle, a few 

 of which are milk cows. 



The second portion of the property lies about 3 

 miles away and contains 321 acres. Scattered over 

 it are six houses in which live 24 adults and 10 

 children. Five of the six families each tills a plot 

 of land for a rental of a third of production. In 

 the sixth house, which is an enormous casa 

 grande,^*^ live a man, his wife, five children, and 

 a hired hand. Besides tending 15 acres of land, 

 this man, as cane is available, runs an engenho for 

 making pinga,^^ under contract with a man in 

 Sao Paulo who, in turn, has a contract with the 

 owner of the property to use the engenho for 5 

 years. On this part of the fazenda are 237 acres 

 of pasture, with 190 head of cattle. Eighty-four 



'*> See DweUings and Furnishings, p. 42 ; also plate 6, d. 

 '" See Distillation of Pinga, p. 89. 



