72 



THIRD ANNUAL SESSIONS 



Dry Land Area. 



"In our immense area about 250,000 square miles greater than the 

 United States proper, there is one northern part, near the Atlantic coast 

 and below the Amazonic basin, where the drouth comes almost per- 

 iodically, bringing serious troubles to the lives of many thousands of 

 Brazilians who live there. 



"This part of the country, though being small in comparison with 

 the total surface of Brazil, is considerable in area, containing lands of 

 great fertility, lacking only moisture to be productive. Any light rain 

 transforms it, covering the land with green vegetation in a very few 

 days. With moisture everything grows there. Such lands are not more 

 than 2,000 to 2,400 feet in average, above the sea level, on the moun- 

 tains, and the dominant rocks are gneiss. 



"You know that we have no snow or ice in Brazil, and certainly 

 we cannot have them n that land which I speak about lying a few de- 

 grees below the equatorial line and not being a high part. Its drysst 

 part is between something like 2 degrees, 5 minutes and 7 degrees south 

 latitude, in the state of Ceata. Therefore, the moisture to render the 



Precipitation Irregular. 



soil productive only comes from the rain, but this, notwithstanding being 

 enough for the desired productiveness, if we consider its annual aver- 

 age, about twenty-five inches in the dryest time), does not produce the 

 expected result, because of its extraordinary irregularity, combined with 

 great evaporation noted there. Sometimes the rain stops for many 

 months, coming only in a very few days during the year. 



Irrigation. 



"There, as you do here, the Brazilian government is carrying on 

 irrigation, but certain parts of such lands must be considered in a dif- 

 ferent way, because of the difficulty or impossibility of getting water 

 enough for irrigation purposes. For that reason the Brazilian govern- 



Government Co-operation. 



ment wishes to try the dry farming process. And as I spoke about it be- 

 fore the Sixteenth National Irrigation Congress, Brazilian General and 

 State Governments are interested in the Campbell system, and experi- 



Campbell System. 



ments with it have been ordered in some places in order to establish Dry 

 Farming in semi-arid zones of the country. Such a process results so 

 well in your country, when properly applied, that it will be of a great 

 importance to us, principally in the northern states, if we can apply rt 

 successfully. 



"Besides, in a very few years the dry farming process will also 

 be of necessity for other zones, where the cutting of the forest is 

 changing the regularity of rains and causing diminishing of the sources. 



