216 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



The reader has regarded with wonder, perhaps with incredulity, the 

 account before given of the size of the farm of Pellotas ; and, indeed, 

 the reported extent of farms in this part of the American Continent can 

 scarcely be mentioned with boldness, by one who has himself Httle doubt 

 of the truth of the accounts. The smallest are stated at four square 

 leagues, or more than twenty thousand acres ; the largest are said to 

 reach to a hundred square leagues, or near six hundred thousand acres. 

 To each three square leagues are allotted four or five thousand head of 

 cattle, six men, and a hundred horses ; though, according to circum- 

 stances, such as the distance from navigable waters^ or from church, 

 there must be a variety in the number of oxen kept for the business of a 

 farm. The proportion of horses will appear a very large one ; but it is to 

 be remembered that they cost nothing in keeping, as they are turned 

 out on the plains ; that no one about the farm, not even a slave, ever 

 goes the shortest distance on foot ; and that each manager will change his 

 horse two or three times in a day. About a hundred cows are allowed 

 for the supply of milk, butter, cheese, and veal, to a farm of the average 

 size. Hogs are usually found near the houses, but little care is taken of 

 them ; they wander about, root up the earth, devour reptiles, and make 

 a good part of their subsistence on the waste parts of the cattle slaugh- 

 tered. There are few Sheep, and they are remarkably light and ill made, 

 with a short ordinary wool ; which, however, might easily be improved. 

 This wool is, at present, used partly unstripped from the skins, as saddle- 

 covers and the like, partly for the stuffing of beds and mattresses. The 

 country is so thinly peopled, its inhabitants have so little liking to 

 mutton, and the wild dogs and other beasts and birds of prey are so 

 numerous, that there can be little inducement to increase the flocks. 



In every Farm there is at least one enclosed place, called the Rodeio, 

 generally on the highest spot ; here the cattle are occasionally collected, 

 examined, marked, and treated as circumstances may require. So accus- 

 tomed are they, particularly the horses, to this practice, that when the 

 servants of the farm ride along, swinging their Lassos or their Hats, 

 and loudly pronouncing the word Rodeio, they all walk slowly to the 



