778 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[May 1, 1901. 
of the company in England and they refused to 
increase the salaries of tlie Administrators or 
Supeiintendents. The consequence is they are all 
very much dissatislied. The necessaries of life are 
much 
DEARER IN BRAZIL THAN IN CEYLON, 
and not of such good quality ; beaus, rice, and 
corn arethe chief articles of food used by the labour. 
It is an old-time custom in i3razil to allow the 
Italian and Spanish Colonials to f;row 
their own crops of rice, beans, corn, manioc, 
tobacco, arrowroot, and sweet potatoes between 
the rows of coffee; the lesult of this is impoverished 
soil, short crops of coflee, and a large percentage 
of dead trees. 
However, there is no remedy against this evil ; 
for the European labourers and their wives and 
children must live ; and, in addition to growing 
food stuffs iu the coffee, they keep an immense 
number of goats, pigs, cows, and horses. 
Hard-working families make money and save 
sufiicient^to return to Italy and Spain. Others, 
who fall sick and get into debt, have an e.xceeding- 
ly rough time of it on the cofi'ee estates of Brazil. 
"on thk great dumont estate 
there were about 5,0U0 (five thousand) people, in- 
cluding women and children ; of the above 5,000 
perhaps 1,000 men would he obtained as con- 
tractors and daily labourers. Theie are 13,000 
(thirteen thousand) aeres of coffee under "cultiva- 
tion," that would be about 13 acres to one man 
to keep in order and harvest the coffee crop. 
This 
BARBAROUS SY.STEM OF STRIPPING THE TREES 
with the crop in all stages of ripeness, wasting 
the green coifee, because scarcity of labour pro- 
hibits more than one round of picking, is the ruin 
of Brazil ; and much of the crop is trodden into 
the ground by men and horses. Another " eye- 
sore " in Brazil is the old crop hanging on when 
the new crop sets its blossoms. 
The trees suffer fearfully from overbearing. 
The cro|> ripens in April, May, June and July. 
The gathering is hardly begun and the estates 
must be cleared of grass and weeds. The weeds 
are ploughed into the ground with- a consider- 
able quantity of coffee dropping off the trees 
with every shower of rain. 
Thousands of pounds worth of coffee are lost 
every year in Brazil through estates not being 
ready to secure their coffee crops before the heavy 
rains set in. Tlieplanting ot food crops throws every- 
thing into arrears and the fields must be cleaned 
up before the stripping commences ; no wonder 
the prices of Brazilian Coffee are always so low 
in the London market when the green coffee is 
mixed with the matured. 
THE PRUNING, TOO, IS BARBAROUS, 
five or six trees in a hole, some of them ruth- 
lessly cliopped down with an Axe, trusting to 
the judgment ot an Italian farm labourer as to 
which should be taken and the others left. I 
have seen tine trees killed and four or five long 
fishing rods left tor next year's crop. One of tlie 
most ghastly sights to be seen is a pruned " 
field of coffee in Brazil. 
Theie is little or no chance of any improve- 
ment being made in the " cultivatio7i " of coffee 
in Brazil for practical experience is at a con- 
siderable discount. "Nifjgcr driving " iioni daj'- 
light till dark, tlie old slave-bells only ringing 
for meals in the held, and work from sun- 
rise to sun-set and such a long trudge back 
^ tlie Colonial barracks, Slavery is supposed to 
be abolished! But in Br-izil ihere are ichite 
slaves. I liave known ihein work 18 hour.s out 
of 2i and in some cases hoe the coffee by moon- 
light to keep clear of debt and get oat of Brazil 
and return to Italy. And what is it all for ? To 
enrich a few individuals, non-resident. 
BRAZIL WILL ALWAYS BE A HAJtl) COUNTRY TO 
LIVE IN. 
There i.'S no enjoyment of life there for an En- 
glisliman and only men who have led a hard life 
"could endure life in Brazil. 
The Dumont Company has not got a iiractical 
coffee planter in their employ ; some of ! hem had 
never seen a coifee bush until they went ' to 
Dumont. 
A flight Knowledge of Portuguese seemed all 
that was necessary to drive and get as muc'i work 
out of the Italians as possible (the Italian Kstate 
labourers speak and understand Portuguese.) 
Most Fazendas (estates) keep an " Amazaine " or 
general store and supply rum— pork— rice — flour 
cloth and ready-made clothing. New arrival.s 
ger>erally get into debt the lirstyear in Brazil. 
The Dumont Coini>any get their goods from the 
Army nnd Navy ' co-operative stores and their 
" Amazame" does a good business with the em- 
ployees. Anotliergreat advantage on Dumont is the 
THIRTY-FIVE MlhVH OF RAILWAY 
promptly despatching stores to the different 
sections of the estate and to the Colonials. 
The making of the railway has much improved 
the value of the property since it was purchased 
from Dumont. Accidents have occurred through 
the sparks from the engines falling on lubhish- 
heaps and coffee has been burxit as ivell as build- 
ings. A great fiie took place shortly after the 
comnletion of the new factory. All the newly-put-up 
machinery for pulping and curing coffee, ♦with a 
considerable quantity of coffee undergoing the 
pro,;ess ot curinc'-, was burnt with the buildings in 
one night— a very had thing for the sliarelioTilers 
of the company in the second or third year from 
the starting of the comimny. Tlie coliee crops 
have steadily increased during the past three years. 
Thirty-two thousand cwt from 13,000 acres only 
works out 3 cwt per acre — a mere maiden crop in 
the palmy days of coffee-planting in Ceylon. The 
twenty or thiity percent of vacancies were sup- 
plied, and now the young trees, three and four 
years old, are cropping heavily, particularly on 
"Aqua Vermilia" (red water) and "Moreira" 
the section on which the writer was employed. 
If the weather and other circumstances are 
favourable 
THE CROP THIS YEAR 
will be a very large one, but the young trees, 
unless relieved of their heavy crop of 
berries, will die out or take a rest from 
bearing for two or three years. Prices are likely 
to go down, owing the Brazilian crop expected be- 
ing unusually large this year, fifteen thousand 
hundredweights being spoken of as under the 
estimate. Labour will be very short indeed, 
through the rise in the value of the milreis. The 
Italians drew their money (Brazilian) and turned 
it into gold and, as they are obliged to give notice 
to leave the estates before being paid off, many 
will remain in Italy. The Government of Brazil 
had lately discontinued giving passages tc intend- 
ing immigrants; consequently the Dumont Com- 
pany were obliged to send an officer from Duraoai 
to recruit Italian labour. 
There are 
