176 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1888. 
try and uuworthy of attention. But let us look at the 
acts. 
At present agriculture in Brazil is nearly con- 
fined to a comparatively narrow belt extending along 
the coast from Cape St. Roque south-wards. This 
region is, in the main, very fertile ; the decomposition 
of the gneiss rocks, which form most of the mountains 
and hills, has given rise to a rich reddish soil, generally 
deep and affording excellent crops of coffee, cane and 
other products even with the miserable no-cultivation 
which is in vogue. There are, however, considerable 
tracts of stony or badly-watered land, which, collec- 
tively, are of great importance, but must practically 
be subtracted from the agricultural lands of the coast 
region. 
The Amazon valley is a vast steaming forest, gene- 
rally (in Para at least) with the poorest possible 
soil ; luxuriant as the vegetable growth is, it covers 
a ground composed of sharp white sand, or at 
best, of a poor clay, almost devoid of the ele- 
ments which nourish forests in other parts of the 
world. Most of the few plantations are on the alluvial 
iron-bottoms, or tracts of terra preta (black land), 
which was formed centuries ago by the rubbish and 
rotting palm thatchets of Indian villages. Never- 
theless, the Amazon valley is well adapted for cer- 
tain crops, and with the introduction of improved 
agricultural implements, it will give good returns to 
the farmer. The forest is nourished, not from the 
ground, but by the air, which is always surcharged 
with moisture ; some kinds of trees will nourish for 
weeks after they are cut. This excess of moisture 
also tends to support the growth of certain cultivated 
plants, especially sugar-cane, coffee and tobacco. And 
if the ground, even this poor clay and sand, were 
properly prepared to receive the roots of the plauts, 
good crops could be obtained almost everywhere. As 
it is, comparatively little of the land is regarded as 
fit for plantations, and these are generally abandoned 
after a few years. 
All the great interior region, comprehending the 
Brazilian table-land, is covered with campo, interrupted 
here and there by little patches of forest on hillsides 
and along the backs of streams. Botanists who 
have travelled through the sertao have been struck 
with the immense variety of families and species to 
be found among the campo plants, and they have 
naturally fallen into the error of regarding it re- 
markably adapted for plant growth. The truth is 
that nearly all the Brazilian tableland is a howling 
sandy desert with a wonderfully rich desert vegetation. 
The botanists may find a thousand species of plants 
on a square league of land ; but I doubt if 
the same land would produce a thousand bushels 
of corn or potatoes. Much of the country is adapted 
for pasturage, but only in the wet season ; dur- 
ing the dry months cattle must be driven away to the 
lowlands. The little strip of forest-land can be used 
for planting and in some places they give good crops ; 
but they form only a small p<irt of the whole. A large 
district comprising part of Beara, Piauhy, Eio Grande 
do Norte, Pernambuco and Oahia, are subject to peri- 
odical droughts, which destroy the cattle and plantations 
and reduce the eutire population to the utmost poverty 
— often to starvation. 
Two elements which go far to determine the fertility 
of Europe and the United States are almost or quite 
wanting in Brazil ; the winters and the action of earth- 
worms. Our northern winters are of immense assist- 
ance in the formation of vegetable mould. The herbs, 
grass and forest leaves die away in the autumn and 
lie in thick beds on the ground, where they are speedily 
covered with snow ; successions of thaws, and finally 
the spring rains, reduce the6e leaves to sodden masses; 
as the sun returns they decay slowly, forming a 
rick, dark soil, rich with the elements of new 
plant-growth. In the tropics, the leaves and herbs 
fall singly, are baked in the sun, broken by 
the wind, and finally pass away almost entirely 
in the form of gases, hardly anything being added 
to the soil. Add to this fact the influence of frost 
in breaking up and disintegrating of rocks, and the 
importance of winter cold in the formation of soils 
will readily be seen. 
The elaborate studies of Mr. Darwin have shown 
that the despised earth-worms are the preservers of 
our farms and gardens; unseen workers, they are 
ever bringing up the rich subsoil and strewing it 
over, the surface ; boring the ground in all directions, 
they keep it loose and soft, and fit it for the roots of 
even tender plants. Now, earth-worms are by no 
means common in Brazil; they are altogether want- 
ing in the campus, and even in the forest they are 
rarely seen except along the banksj of streams. 
Probably the sandy soils so prevalent in Brazil 
are ill adapted to them ; very likely, too, 
they would be of less use in ground which, 
by its nature, is friable and easily pierced 
by roots. At all events they are an element, of 
greater or less importance, which is nearly wanting 
in Brazil. 
I have written all this in no harsh spirit — rather as 
a friend of Brazil. I wish to point out a mistake 
which might in the future lead to grave troubles. 
The first element of success in the individual, or in a 
new country, is a thorough knowledge of the resources 
of the weak points which must determine success or 
failure. Brazil has great resources ; it has elements 
of agricultural wealth which are far from unimportant ; 
but by overrating its own riches it may be tempted 
to waste them ; by resting too securely on agricul- 
tural industries it may neglect the no less important 
ends of manufactures, mining, grazing and commerce. 
Brazil is far too large and important a country to be 
content with one element of success. She should 
seek for all. Herbert H. Smith. 
— Planters' Monthly. 
AGRICULTUEAL ITEMS. 
(From the California Florist for June.) 
Quick Work. — In Augusta, Ga., a tree felled 
in early morning, was, before nightfall the same 
clay, converted into paper, and sent out bearing the 
current news. — Ex. 
Parchment Paper. — Mr. A. C. Oelschig, the Sava- 
nata, Ga., rose-grower, writes, that so far he 
has not been able to obtain parchment paper at a 
price which will justify practical use. It could 
not be obtained in Europe last season, and the 
New York factories wanted 25 cents a pound, which 
is too much. He sends The Florist a number of 
samples of the paper, and promises a full report 
of his experiments this season. It is safe to pre- 
dict that this material will soon supplant glass 
for the protection of plants from both heat and 
cold in all semitropie countries. 
A Weeping rose tree in a garden at Koosterin, 
Holland, is so large that thirty performers lately 
gave a concert under its branches. It is sixty-five 
feet in circumference, and it has been estimated 
that it had 10,000 roses at the time of the per- 
formance. — Rural Californian. 
Vinegar. — A patent has been granted in England 
for the manufacture of vinegar from tomatoes. 
The fruit when ripe, or nearly so, is reduced to a 
pulp and steeped in water for twenty -four hours. 
The resulting liquor is drawn off, sugar added and 
the whole allowed to ferment. 
Mr. Purvis, of Kukuihaele, Hamakua, has a 
number of Japanese preparing the ground for a 
large number of tea plants, which he has success- 
fully raised, and there seems no doubt but what 
tea-growing will become a profitable industry in 
the Hawaiian Isles. 
Sea- Weed. — California big trees will have to take 
a second place as botanical giants now that the 
ocean has undertaken to beat the land in the size 
of its products. Capt. John Stone, of the ship 
" Clever," picked up a sea-weed on the Atlantic near 
the equator, that was 1,500 feet long. It was an 
alga, and has been identified as a specimen of 
macroceptis pyrifera. — Philadelphia Times, 
