Feb. 1, 1899,1 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
551 
INDIAN NATIVES AND GREEN TEA. 
A planter, who spent some months travelling 
over India with an eyft to selling tea amongst 
the natives, wrote : " Many native tea drinkers 
asked me for green tea, as they have a theory 
that green tea is less heating to the system tha)i 
black tea. Some of them told me that they drink 
tea regularly during the cold weather, but have 
to give it up in the hot weather, as it is too 
heating, but ir they could t'et green tea they 
would drink it all (he year round. I cannot 
pretend to say how far this theory is founded on 
fact." — Pioneer, J a,n. 3- 
COFFEE PLANTING IN BRAZIL. 
Some months ago an interesting monograph on 
coffee planting in' Brazil was published byJ. H. de 
Bussy, of Amatei-dani, Holland. Its author is Dr. F. 
\V. Dafert, of the asricultural institute at Campinas, 
S. Paulo, whose competence for such a discussion is 
universally conceded here in Brazil. The mono- 
graph is in Dutch, and we therefore make use of the 
following translation and digest prepared for the 
American Grocer by J.F.Geisler, Ph. C, of New York. 
The total amount of land under cultivation for 
coffee in 1895-93 was estimated at 2,215,557 hectares, 
and the world's product at 836,000 tons, of which 
Brazil produced 460,000 tons upon a cultivated area of 
1.000,0(10 hectares. Although Brazil embraces about 
8'3 million square kilometres (an area equivalent to 
that of Europe), anJ only about one-tentli of this is 
excluded from the possibility of coffee culture, yet 
economical reasons exclude nine-tenths of the theore- 
tically available area. Of the latter, much is of poor 
quality, but can be made very productive through 
artificial fertilization, which would bring into active 
factors the campos (grass lands) and terra exhausia 
(exhausted soils). 
The lands originally selected for coffee plantations 
were almost exclusively such whose /?o)-a consisted of 
primitive forests or wood lands. Barely were the 
campos ventured upon. While nature of soil, amount 
or moisture, and climate are the prime factors in the 
selection for plantations, the lands should not be 
exposed to frosts or the cold south winds. The soil 
should not be wet, and must ba porous and deep, to 
prevent injury to the tap root. 
Geologically, the best coffee lands are those of 
recent volcanic origin, as evidenced by the diorite, 
melaphyre, and porphyr rocks. To this group belongs 
the terra roxa, a dark red soil. The terra vermeUia, 
a lighter red soil, inferior to the former, originated 
from the paleozoic and triassic ages. One of the 
best S. Paulo soils, known as massape preta, is a rich 
humus soil. The best soils are rich in phosphoric 
acid and potash, containing usually 18 to 35 per cent, 
of the former and 10 to 2i; per cent of the latter. The 
fertility of the soil is usually indicated by the 
number, strength, and character of the trees. 
The varieties of climate in Brazil are so great 
within the cultivated zone that Kio coffee is usually 
marketed a month sooner than Santos coffee, while 
the crops of Braganca and Atibaia do not mature 
before October. 
Of the varieties of coffee, the cafe nacional is the 
most widely cultivated. It is less productive than 
the cafe Bourbon. The latter exhausts the soil very 
quickly, and is, therefore, not very popular with 
planters. Marar/O'/ipe is a large berry of limited pro- 
uuction and high market value. Holucatu, a local 
yellow variety, known in India as Golden Drop coffee, 
is jiot much cultivated. The variety stands between 
cafe nacional and cafe llourhon in productiveness. 
A very scarce variety of scientific interest in the 
cafe hi/hrica, with four to six berries instead of the 
two berries common to the other varieties. 
At present the varieties cultivated are divided ap- 
Sroxiniatcly at 75 per cent. Arabian, 20 per cent 
ourbon, and the rest between cafe Botmalu and 
Maragofjii'e. 
The abolition of slavery in 1888 raised the cost of pro- 
duction of coffee and, in a measure, also the method 
of cultivation. By the oM method, as soon as a land 
showed a tendency toward short crops the planter 
with his slaves moved to the interior, where he 
had acquired new lands. The primitive forest was 
cut down and the land planted with young trees from 
the old plantation, or seedling was resorted to. It 
required three and a half to four years before the 
new plantation became productive. By the new me- 
thod a well-manured seed-bed is prepared and the 
young plants carefully nursed and transplanted two 
or three times, and gradually accustomed to the sun. 
The small trees are then transplanted in baskets in 
rows, carefully spaced, so as to permit the use of 
machines for hoeing. The careful nursing of the 
plants yields in one and a half years what the old 
method scarely produced in four years. The land is 
kept free from weeds, and for this purpose is machine- 
hoed at least five times. 
To restore the amount of mineral matter annually 
removed by the crops the added fertilizer should con- 
tain about eight grammes phosporic acid, thirty-five 
grammes potash, and sixteen grammes nitrogen per 
tree. Stable manure must also be applied to the soil 
to get the beat results. 
For practical purposes the farm or plantation ehould 
be divided into two sections — one for coffee cultiva- 
tion proper and the other for food and fodder. The 
ratio for practical purposes should be at least, for 
10,000 trees, fifteen hectares fodder land and five hec- 
tares animal land. The manure from the latter playa 
an important part in the successful working of the 
plantation. 
In gathering the crops the ground under the trees 
is carefully cleaned and the berries allowed to fall on 
the same. Double picking, to separate the ripe and un- 
ripe berries, is frequently resorted to, but is not a uni- 
versal practice. The picked berries were formerly 
dried in the sun on mats, the operation taking 
several weeks. The dried berries were then shelled, 
cleaned, sorted, and marketed. The average yield 
per tree was 300 to 900 grammes, the hectare con- 
taining 900 to 1,100 trees. The maximum yield 
ranged between the tenth to fourteenth years, and 
varied from 270 to 990 kilos per hectare. In the 
modern plantation the trees are planted in line four 
to six metres apart, and the soil fertilized with a 
mixture of stable manure and chemical fertilizers. 
The preparation for the market of the picked berries 
is done by both the wet and dry process. Usually 
the picked berries are put through a decorticator, in 
which the ripe berries are crushed, while the unripe 
hard berries pa^s through unchanged. The latter are 
dried separately. Since the ripe berries float and th« 
unripe berries are heavier, this methoi is frequently 
resorted to for their separation. The berries are 
spread out in layers for drying, the decorticated berry 
requiring about five days (if dried in shell, eight days), 
while the green berry requires twenty to thirty days, 
according to the weather. 
The drying process is now much improved by sort- 
ing the berries according to their size. The berries 
are first dried in the sun for a few days, by which 
operation they lose about 50 per cent of the moisture. 
They are then transferred to drying chambers, and 
the drying rapidly terminated ; so that the whole 
operation is finished within five daye, whereas the 
old method required twenty to thirty days. More- 
over, the degree of moisture of the berry is more 
accurately judged during the artificial drying. Thus 
the blue berries contain more moisture than the 
green, and the latter more than the yellow. 
The modern method of applying fertilizers tends 
to an increased production of coffee. Thns the pro- 
ducts from fifty trees raised in the trial gardens 
averaged per tree as follows : — 
Planted 
T'nfci ilised 
Fertilised 
gi a 
M B 
o a 
00 2 
T-l tie 
CO Ui 
r-l 60 
so 
00 
25 
35 
200 
90 
40 
120 
780 
185 
605 
700 
560 
9Q0 
