68 



COFFEE. 



since tliat period such has been the neglect of the plantations through- 

 out the country, owing in the first j)lace to the uninterrupted five 

 years' war of the Federation up to the close of the crop of 1853, and 

 to the subsequent state of anarchy and confusion prevailing, the 

 scarcity of capital and labour, and the want of personal supervision 

 upon the part of landed proprietors, that the yield may be said to 

 have diminished by one-half, and thus the general average does not 

 exceed a quarter of a pound per tree. It may be remarked, also, that 

 the coffee plant, though prolific, is most delicate and susceptible, 

 requiring constant attention and careful cultivation, such as circum- 

 stances do not admit of its having bestowed on it in this country. 



An intelligent American gentleman, many years resident in Brazil, 

 and well acquainted with coffee cultivation in the province of Eio 

 Janeiro, who visited Caracas in 1869, informed the coffee growers 

 that the general average annual yield of coffee for the past twenty 

 years in Brazil had been 4 lbs. per tree, and upon the most carefully 

 cultivated plantations as high as 30 lbs. per tree, whilst upon smaller 

 estates of 200 to 300 acres, with 500 trees per acre, a regular yield of 

 10 lbs. was obtained. The coffee trees in Brazil are not shaded as 

 they are in Venezuela, which ensures a larger yield, although lessening 

 the duration of producing power, generally estimated at about fifteen 

 years. Improved and more scientific culture would certainly give 

 2 lbs. per tree as the average in Venezuela, many isolated instances 

 existing of that amount, and even of over 4 lbs. per tree having been 

 obtained. 



Production in Brazil. — Coffee having been introduced into the 

 French settlement of Cayenne, by La Motte Aigron, the governor, 

 in 1722, a Brazilian subject, Palhetta, while on a voyage to that colony, 

 managed, not without much difiiculty, to bring to the city of Belem 

 (Para) a few of the seeds of this valuable plant; in that province 

 coffee trees were multiplied through the care of Agostinho Domingos, 

 and others. A deserter, it is said, introduced the plant from Para 

 into Maranham about 1770. The judge, Joas Gualberto Castello 

 Banco, appointed chancellor to the high court of the Eelacas at Rio 

 Janeiro, took with him with great care two small coffee trees during 

 the vice-royalty of the Marquis de Lavradio, in the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, when sugar and cereals constituted the great 

 fountains of the wealth of the province of Eio Janeii'o. The two 

 plants were by order of that notable statesman cultivated in a private 

 garden in the neighbourhood of the convent of Adjuda, and in this 

 manner those two small and humble trees in the course of one 

 century become the first and most important branch of the public 

 wealth. 



Mr. Moke, a Belgian, is said to have been the first planter to carry 

 on the systematic cultivation of coffee near the city of Eio, and 

 enormous profits have resulted from the energetic efforts thus made. 



The coffee tree having rapidly multiplied, extended itself then over 

 dozens of miles, and was transplanted to Minas Geraes, San Paulo, 

 Bahia, Ceara, &c. 



Coffee is now the most important agricultural product of Brazil, 

 and forms the principal staple of its foreign commerce. It con- 



