6i6 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[January 2, 1882. 
there will be held in the city of Rio de Janeiro a general 
exposition of Brazilian coffee produced in the provinces 
of Rio, Minas, S. Paulo and Espirito Santo, and also 
in such other provinces as may wish to take part 
in it. 
This exposition will comprise, as far as practicable, 
every variety of types of the respective production, so 
as to give an idea not only of the good but of all the 
diverse qualities and is to be ceded unconditionally to 
the "Centro da Lavoura e do Commercio," the organizer 
and director of the said expositions. 
The imperial government will concede gratuitous trans- 
port on its railroads to products destined for the ex- 
positions, and will provide through its dependencies every 
assistance which may facilitate this enterprise, such as 
exemption from duties and others, as well as the pecu- 
niary subventions which may be necessary. 
Within the exposition building there will be admitted 
the designs and models of the machines and agricult- 
ural implements which the respective manufacturers 
and their representatives may wish to exhibit. 
On days previously designated public conferences will 
be held on the various questions of rural, agricultural 
and commercial economy, with reference to Brazilian 
coflee. 
During the time of the expositions the government 
railroads will issue tickets at reduced prices. 
The classification of the exhibited products will remain 
in charge of the coffee merchants and brokers of this 
city and the awards will be made by a jury named from 
among the various classes comprised in the commerce of 
this article. 
The prizes will be offered by the imperial government 
and the diplomas will be countersigned by the minister 
of agriculture, commerce and public works. Special prizes 
will be conferred upon municipalities according to the 
merit and standing of their respective exhibitors. 
After the close of the exposition in Rio de Janeiro it 
will be transferred to the various markets of America 
and Europe, the samples being sub-divided as may be 
judged most convenient, and preference in choice of 
markets each year being given according as it may 
appear most opportune in the judgment of the interested 
classes. 
The " Centro da Lavoura e do Commercio " will endea- 
vour to obtain, with the assistance of the local press, a 
complete collection of the labors realized, which should 
form a beginning of the library of the coffee-growers. 
The expositions in the foreign markets will bs organ- 
ized according to a special plan which will be opport- 
unely elaborated under consultation with leading com- 
mercial men, foreign consuls and the Commercial Asso- 
ciation of Rio de Janeiro, so as to realize, as fully as 
possible, the idea of generalizing the knowledge and 
consumption of Brazilian coffee in its present markets 
and in those where it is not as yet known. 
In the definite organization of these labors the eco- 
nomical question will be considered so as to render as 
small as possible the pecuniary contribution by the state, 
principally and directly interested in this great experi- 
ment. 
The imperial government, besides giving the direct 
aid in the terms already specified, will recommend to 
all its diplomatic and consular agents to consider it 
their first and most patriotic duty to help and co-oper- 
ate in these labours of the agricultural industry of 
Brazil, not only by their personal action and influence, 
but also by means of their prestige with the press and 
any other corporations of the countries where they may 
reside. 
Such is, in its principal outlines, the plan which 
seems to us at once practicable and safe in its results, 
if t Ik; comprehension of their own interests will lead 
our planters, as it is to bo hoped it will, to make the 
necessary effort. 
We might offer to your excellency still other develop- 
ments of the question submitted to our examination, 
chiefly with reference to the indispensable knowledge of 
the actual state of coffee culture in all producing coun- 
tries ; we lack, however, the necessary certainty in order 
to propose the best means to obtain the desired infor- 
mation, and this will yet form the subject of our parti- 
cular attention. 
We rely on the awakening of the many interests 
already now represented in our agriculture, menaced in 
its actual constitution and economy ; and we are con- 
vinced that the commercial class will not withhold its 
assistance and support of the attempts toward improve- 
ment and progress which we so much and so urgently 
need. 
The imperial government in its wisdom will not fail 
to consecrate the most constant solicitude to these great 
subjects of public wealth ; and so many united pledges 
will certainly result in restoring confidence and tran- 
quility to labor, and to the country the abundance and 
prosperity which we all cordially and sincerely desire." 
— Jornal do Commercio. 
HORiE HORTULANiE :— ON SOILS. 
(Gardeners' Chronicle, 8th October 1881.) 
( Continued from page 561. ) 
Reverting to the chemical changes in the soil, ad- 
verted to at the close of my last article, I may say 
that in the first place, if I have at all carried my 
readers with me thus far, they will be prepared to admit 
that when we venture on questions connected with the 
chemistry of the soil, we have to deal not only — indeed, 
not so much — with the mere presence of this or that 
chemical substance, as with the existence and prevalence 
of chemical activities. As I said before, the elements 
which the plant builds up into its tissues are not quietly 
stored up in the earth like drugs in a chemist's shop, 
and the plant does not simply pick out the particles it 
needs from their quiet resting-places just as the drug- 
gist takes from bottle and drawer the materials which 
he compounds into a healing draught. On the contrary, 
if there be any truth in what I have urged, the soil is 
crammed with hidden laboratories, and all the earth 
around and even far away from the recipient rootlets 
of the plants is, through the ceaseless action and re- 
action of the compounds which make it up, engaged in 
continual slow but potent molecular tumult. But if this 
be admitted, there follows as a deduction an important 
truth, not always, I imagine, borne in mind, that when 
we add any substance to the soil, what we have to con- 
sider is, not the mere addition to the composition of 
the ground, but the influence which the new substance 
will exert on the activities which were previously at 
work. The substances, it is true, which I mentioned a 
little while back as being the constituent elements of 
all living things must be present in the soil at the dis- 
posal of the plant; hence, when they are absent or 
scanty, they must be supplied. So far the rule of mere 
addition holds good : but when we attempt to pass be- 
yond this simple instruction, we are at once plunged 
into uncertainties. When chemistry was first applied to 
vegetable life, the path seemed easy enough. Since plants 
differ in composition, the right way appeared to be to 
analyse each plant, and to add to the soil the elements 
which predominate in the plant, giving here potash, there 
phosphates, according as one or the other abounded in 
the ashes. But a little experience showed that this lead- 
ing" was fallacious. Just as the potash-gathering kelp 
thrives in the salt-laden sea, so many a plant does best 
amid an abundance of substances of which it takes but 
a scant quantity into itself. 
Nor is that guide much more trustworthy which bids 
us add to the ground the constituents predominant in 
the native soil in which the plant delights to grow — 
which tells us, for instance, to add lime or chalk to 
the bed or nook in which we wish to grow plants 
