CRUZ DAS almas: a BRAZILIAN VILLAGE,' — ^PIERSON 



69 



pepper, 50 lettuce, and 6 couve plants; about 500 

 lettuce, GO couve, and 200 cabbage plants. On 

 two fai-ms, there were no gardens. On another 

 farm, the only plants in the garden were three cu- 

 cumber vines and, on still another farm, there 

 were onlj' four xiixu vines. 



On only two farms was garden produce being 

 grown for sale ; on one of these, there were about 

 2,000 pepper plants and a small patch (about i,4o 

 of an acre) of cabbage; on the other, 3 tare fas 

 (about half an acre) of squash. 



In the village, 9 of the 73 families have gardens 

 back of their houses. In one of these, there are 

 small quantities of lettuce, chicory, radishes, water 

 cress, and sugarcane, the latter taking up the major 

 portion of the ground cultivated. In another 

 garden there are a few plants each of lettuce, car- 

 rots, and beets. A third family has a small patch 

 of maize. Another family has about 25 hills of 

 beans. A fifth family has about 30 hills of onions, 

 10 plants of couve, 5 of peppers, and 2 of wild 

 celery, a pumpkin vine, and a anixu vine. Another 

 family has a few lettuce and couve plants. A 

 neighbor has a xuosu vine and a few parsley plants. 

 Another neighbor has a small patch of maize and 

 six lettuce and eight cabbage plants. The ninth 

 family has a few plants each of carrots, peas, cab- 

 bage, tomatoes, peppers, and cucvmabers. A few 

 other families have small gardens on pieces of 

 land which they own or rent for farming purposes 

 outside the village. 



One reason why vegetables and other garden 

 truck are not more extensively grown is the pres- 

 ence of the sauva ant, which in a single night may 

 cut off the plants of an entire garden. "I like 

 greens very much," said a farm woman, "especially 

 couve. I used to plant a good-sized garden — 

 enough for my family and to give away to others. 

 But the last 2 years, the ants have cut down every- 

 thing."' 



Of the 17 farms, the farm on which the greatest 

 variety of fruit was growing had the following 

 kinds : 



Number 



Kind of fruit : o; trees 



Orange 15 



Pineapple 12 



Peach 12 



Jabotiedba "' 9 



Banana 6 



Numher 

 Kind of fruit — Continued of trees 



Mango 5 



Papaya 5 



Pear 4 



Lima "' 4 



Fig 3 



Grape 3 



CaquI 150 2 



Apple 2 



Lime (limao galego) 2 



Araticum "" 1 



Total 85 



All fruit grown on this farm is consumed by the 

 occupants, a father, mother, and their 10 children, 

 all of whom are grown and 2 of whom are married 

 and live with their families in separate houses 

 on the same farm. None of the fruit is sold. 



On each of the other 16 farms, the number of 

 different kinds of fruit being grown were, respec- 

 tively : 11, 9, 8 (two farms) , 5 (two farms) , 4 (four 

 farms), 3 (two farms), 2 (two farms), 1, 0; or an 

 average of 5.2 kinds of fruit per farm. 



The farm with the largest number of fruit trees 

 had 283, distributed in the following way : bananas 

 200, oranges 30, peaches 14, mangoes 13, jaloticd- 

 tas 12, avocados 5, caquis 5, limes 2, limas 2. One 

 farm had no fruit. On the other 15 farms, the 

 principal fruit being grown was bananas, only 2 

 farms being without this fruit. The number of 

 stalks on each farm were, respectively, 200, 80, 70, 

 40, 35, 30 (on two farms), 20 (on three farms), 

 8, 6, and 3. One farm had no fruit except 

 bananas. 



Nineteen different kinds of fruit were growing 

 on the 17 farms. In the order of their frequency 

 they were: bananas, on 14 farms; oranges, on 11 

 farms ; jaioticdbas, on 8 farms ; limas, peaches, and 

 limes, on 7 farms each ; mangoes, on 6 farms ; pears 

 and apples, on 4 farms each; caquis, grapes, and 

 pineapples, on 3 farms each; papayas, figs, and 

 avocados, on 2 farms each ; quinx;e, citrous, guavas, 

 and araticuns, on 1 farm each. 



The total number of each kind of fruit tree (or 

 plant) on all 17 farms was: araticuns 1, guavas 2, 

 quince 5, figs 6, avocados 6, caquis 9, papayas 10, 



'" See WOd Fruits, p. 34. 



^^^ Citrus inedica ; not the lime. 



^'° A species ot persimmon, originally imported, It is said, 

 from Japan. The fruit in Brazil sometimes reaches 3 inches 

 in diameter. 



■a See Wild Fruits, p. 34. 



