March 1, 1900.] TtiE TROHCAL AGRICULTUKIST. 
■631 
AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL CON- 
DITIONS IN PARANA, BRAZIL. 
Of the three great southern states of Brazil (Rio 
Grande do Sui, Parana and Santa Catharina), Parana 
is the least developed. Its area is 85,438 square miles, 
and its present population, exohisive of the Indians, 
is about 250,000, 55 per cent of whi:;h is colored. 
Topographically, the state may be di^-iied into two 
zones, represeniing the strongest possible contrast ; 
the littoral zone, situated between the Atlantic ocean 
and the mountain range which runs from north to 
sonth, parallel with the shore — the tJerra do Mar ; 
and the mountain zone extending west from there 
to the Parana river. The n irrow strip along the 
seaabore, as a rule, is swampy and unhealthy, the 
temperature varying between 10* and 35" C. (50* to 
■ 95° F.). The altitudes of the table-lands vary from 
200 to 1,200 meters (656 to 3,936 feet). The sanitary 
conditions are very favorable, except where, as in 
Corityba and Lapa, the soil and water are, for want 
of proper drainage, poisoned by sewage. The climate 
is excellent. The average temperature ia 17° C. (62° 
F.) for the sub-tropical part of Parana ; in the table- 
lands the thermometer sometimes (in July) falls below 
the freezing point. 
The harbor of the state — Paranagua (with Antonina) 
— is connected with Curityba, the capital and distri- 
butive centre, by a railroad, which constitutes a 
masterpiece, not to say a miracle, of engineering, 
and on its way up the mountains (over 8,000 feet) leads 
through scenery of unparalleled beauty and grandeur. 
It is to be regretted that none of the many pleasure- 
seekers, travellers, tourists, artists, and students who 
annually migrate from the United States to Prance, 
Italy, Egypt, Germany, and Switzerland find it 
convenient to visit this beautiful and highly interest- 
ing American country, which could be made so easily 
accessible. 
The railroad leading from Paranagua to the 
interior (Oompagnie Generale de Chemins Ae fer 
Bresiliens) was built, with French capital, by the 
celebrated Brazilian engineer Teseira Soares. It 
comprises the following sections: East from Para- 
nagua to Antonina, 16 kilometers (9.9 miles); west 
from Paranagua to Curityba, 102 kilometers (63 37) 
miles) ; and from Curityba to Serrinha, 71 kilometers 
(44 miles); thence north to Ponta Grossa, 107 kilo- 
meters (66.48 miles), and south to Rio Negro, 89 
kilometers (55.3 miles). There is a branch from Rss- 
tinga to Porto Amazonas (over 12 miles) connecting 
the railroad with the Iguasau and its tributaries along 
which the more important colonies are situated. The 
development of the Iguassu valley is yet in a very 
primitve state, but this district is destined to have 
a great future. 
The Ignassu river, a tributary to the Parana, is 
about 800 miles long, but 220 miles are navigable — 
the section between Porto Am«zonas to Porto da 
Uniao. Although the latter is at present only a 
little village of about 1,000 inhabitants, there is no 
doubt in my mind that it is one of the future big 
cities of Parana ; that ere long it will be a large 
railroad center, outgrowing Curityb», and will control 
the trade of the most important part of this pro- 
mising young state. The conatrnction of a railroad 
from the coast of Santa Catharina through the rich 
and very populous German colonies Blumenau and 
Joinville, northwest to a point connecting with the 
Rio Grande and Sao Paulo road (now in course of oon- 
•ttuoti n) B,nd the Iguassu region is a question of a few 
ye«8 ; and both these lines will have to touch Pono 
da Uniao, which place will also bs the terminal 
point of the proposed extension of the Parana trunk 
fine from Raatinga Southwest along the Iguassu. 
After those railroads are completed, trade and com- 
merce along the Iguassu region and within the fertile 
plateaus in the west of the state will be rapidly deve- 
loped, and the bulk of the import and export trade 
of Parana will probably move by way of the 
Santa Catharina porta — Itajahy and Sao Francisco 
— more cheaply and quickly than by way of Paranagua- 
Cucltybft. 
Parana, iiko the two other south Brazilian states, 
is crippled for want of capital and proper immigra- 
tion. Since emigration from Germany has practically 
ceased, the progress of southern Brazil ia retarded. 
Serious miataKes were made in the oolonization 
of Parana. Until recently, imm-gration into Brazil 
was largely aubaidized by the state and the national 
governments; but it seems the men who had charge 
of that function were not careful enough in the selec- 
tion of the material with which they colonize i. Large 
Bums cf moDi-y were wasted and undesirable elemsnti 
brought to the state in great numbers. Guided by 
the fear that any one ciasa of immigrants might 
become too inflaential by concentration of -its forces, 
some of those formerly in charge of the colonial 
system located the ninety colonies in such a way as 
to put the most heterogeneous elements into the 
closest proximity, intersecting small parcels of one 
nationality with small parcels of another— Austrian 
Poles with Russian Poles and Italians, Germans with 
Russian Poles. Italians with Prnaaian Poles, etc. 
Thus the colonial map of Parana presents the aspect 
of a German-Latin-Slavonic crazy quilt, a fact which 
is not conducive to a homogeneous development of 
the commonwealth. 
Of tiie 250,000 inhabitants of the state, about half 
are natives of Brazil, 40,000 are German, about 
40,C00 are Italian, 35,000 are Polish (Austrian, 
Russian, and Prussian), and the rest are of Spanish, 
Fi-enoh, and other origin. 
The import trade is almost exclusively in the hands 
of the Germans. It amounted in 1897 to ,000,000 
in foreign goods and about $175,000 in domestic 
goods. There were imported 362,000 kilograms (798,000 
pounds) of coffee from Santos and Rio ; 46,000 kilo- 
grams (101,400 pounds) of tobacco from Bahia ; large 
quantities of dried beef and tongues from Rio Grande 
do Sul, Argentina, and Uruguay ; canned goods and 
preserves from Germany, either direct or through 
dealers in Rio. Of manufactured articles, there were 
imported from Germany machinery, rails, iion, hard- 
ware, barbed wire, porcelain, china, earthen ware, 
lamps, pharmaceutical preparations and imple- 
ments, cutlery, clothing, gents' furnishing, leather 
and leather ware, shotguns and revolvers, glass- 
ware ; from the United States, druggist's supplies and 
coal oil; from Norway, 837,000 kilograms (1,845,300 
pounds) of pine wood. Importation from France has 
almost entirely ceased. Tlie cotton piece goods were 
imported from England, which country also furnished 
the entire supply of coal. 
The export during 1897 consiited chiefly of yerba 
mate (Paraguay tea), some hard wood, and an experi- 
mental shipment of hides and ho.ns to Prance. 
Two-thirds of the yerba mate expoi ted 1, 500,0 lO) 
went to Argentina and Uruguay and almost one-third 
to Chile. Unfortunately, none was exported to the 
United States. For various reasons, the import of 
mate into the United Stn,tes ought to be en- 
couraged. From my observation and personal 
experience, I feel justified in recommending its 
iuse as an excellent stimulant and nerve tonico 
It is preeminently a temperance drink, and the 
temperance societies in the United Stales could uo 
a Vfry useful woik by helping to popularize it. 
Yerba mate, or Paraguay tea as it is calltd abroad 
has all the stimulatiiig and sustaining quiilities of 
Chinese tea or cofi'ee, without the detrimental effact 
caused by their constant excessive use — L-.ffection • f 
liver a!;d kiilntys, irritation of the nervous aysttm 
etc. — and it is very cheap. The gt>.a6 m•'-s^it8 
in Uruguay iind Argentina including tlie famous 
gauchos (cowboys) of the great prairies, who driiik 
it constantly instead of water, tea, or cofiee, hardly 
ever use a'.ooholic stimulants. Intoxication is a rare 
occurrence there. It is almost incredible what hard- 
ships they undergo and how vigorous they are, while 
often for a suocoasive number of days they use nothing 
to sustain them but mate. 
Aside from the sanitary benefits, in helping to 
develop the mate industry in Parana, ire would secure 
commercial advantages of great importance. The 
UBtaral reaonroea o£ the state p£ Parana are very 
