240 
poe sige which, when found, he does his utmost to keep his 
compani 
* The quise of the pulled Piassava should be done sd t 
night, as the men are furnished on credit at the TT and 
és 
The average cut 
arrobas (1 pesce = 822 Ibs.) of loose, Ze. unbound Piassava; and the 
oun 
to abuse such credit on Pens. 
“Th have estimated the daily work of one man at three arrobas, 
an inexperienced hand is often unable to clear more than one or two ; 
while on the other hand a very hard worker has been known to clear 
small bundles of which a bale is composed; though, in my opinion, the 
Piassava thus weighed is much more favourable to fraud hd that 
weighed unbound. 
“It may be useful to uote here that the cost of binding up the 
cabeças is 20 reis a-piece (1,000 reis = 27 
* As limited above, the cutters always do their best to defraud the 
principals or buyers. They smuggle stones, and pieces of palin inside 
the mondongas (i.e. parcels supposed to weigh 60 kilos or 132 lbs., 
ready for weighing) ; they spread the fibre out on the ground, leaving 
d ies be 
o 
edifying examples; they csuse their weighing machines to be tampered 
with before being used, they allow errors be creep into their 
scepunts, whieh never seeding to their own disadvantage. 
e fibre is weighed, the proprietor sends it down to his 
fazenda by the ee The main track is cleared at the expense of the 
weighed on this path, or make a road themselves to the 
they have built their shanty. The mules are usually driven in troops 
of seven animals to fem muleteer, and the weight carried by each mule 
is six arrobas (194 lbs.) 
* Upon arrival at the fazenda the fibre is a cleaned, and 
pressed into bales by a packing press, or by han 
^ “It is packed into two kinds of bales; viz. i molho and the 
ardo. 
“The molho is pressed by hand, it contains three or five cabecas, 
and is bound in five, mim or nine places, The charge for making 
these up is 200 reis (52d.) 
“The fardo contains 10 or 12 redit and by reason of its size is 
pieked in the press ; costing from 240 to 300 reis per fardo for making 
up. A good packer will turn out from 18 to 22 molhos daily, and two 
^od workmen can press from 30 to a fardos in the same time 
ss BRE N fazenda be on a river the goods are shipped down to the 
wn by canoe; a large one holding say 45 w 50 fardos, or about 
120: + 130 molhos. 
