November i, 1890.] 
THE TROPiCAL AGRICULTURIST. 
329 
Or in round numbers 1,300 miles railway j 
since the agitation was begun at Campinas six- 
teen years ago. We all remember the great rise 
that, about these times, 1873-5, took place in the 
price of coffee. The leaf-disease had not taken 
such hold on coffee trees in Ceylon, there were 
hopes that a cure mi.ght be found, or that it 
might leave in the same mysterious way that it 
came. Brazil was then looked on as the great 
rival of Ceylon. In these times your readers 
seemed incredulous at the figures I gave in esti- 
mating coffee crops to be shipped from Eio and 
Santos, but we were always at one in calculating 
the great benefit to this country and to your 
own of railway extension. And how much have 
all our estimates and calculations been exceeded 
as regards Brazil in both of these ? But, alas ! 
owing to that leaf-disease calamity, Brazil is no 
more the rival of Ceylon, and the impetus which 
railway extension has given to coffee production 
in Sao Paulo tloes not interest you since the 
cultivation of the valuable bean is not your stand- 
by any longer. In any case looking at the 
subject from an economical point of view, 
the same arguments showing that railway ex- 
tension is the most important factor for the 
increase in production, can be apiplied to any 
country. Let us look at the figures for Sao Paulo 
as applied to coffee alone. At the same time (ill 
of these railways, which I have given you a list 
of do not depend for traffic ^ on coffee alone, _ In 
many cases, in particular districts, where little 
was expected owing ti their being out of the coffee 
zone, large quantities of other_ things, _ such as 
cotton, cane for central factories, Indian corn, 
beans farinha, lime timber, stones (flags or slates), 
and a host of things, that no one formerly thought 
of being transported, have contributed to make 
receipts exceed expenditure. The same thing would 
take place in Ceylon, were your colonial authorities 
to reverse their stiok-in the-mud policy, and spread 
a net work of railways over your luxuriant island. 
Leaving out your mountain zone, there is no reason 
why railways to Mannar, Jaffna, Trincomalee, 
Batticaloa, and right through Bintenna, could not be 
made as cheap as in Brazil— £3,000 per mile. 
Many things which would contribute to give traffic, 
we do not dream of at present, both from the 
interior to the seaports and from the seaports to the 
interior. Given means of transport, a healthy climate, 
good soil, an energetic class of men to direct, and 
there is no end to the resources of a new country; 
and you have all these factors. 
But let us return to Sao Paulo. 
In 1860 61 just before the Santos- Sao Paulo Bailway 
was opened: — 
The export of Coffee from Santos was 82,608 sacks 
In 1876-77 just as the first metre lines 
were being extended .. 628,898 ,, 
In 1888-1889 with the mileage I have 
given above . . • - 2,611,706 ,, 
Each sack hold 3 60 kilograms of ooflee,and 1 ,790 to a ton . 
Let us give all honour to the coffee planters 
around Campinas for seeing the great advantage 
the railway system was to bring them, in a 
cheap and expeditious means of sending their 
produce to market, and for their courage in risking 
their spare capital in these metre gauge railways. 
What though these projects were to open up parts 
which were almost geographically unknown, hunts- 
men, wandering pedlars and pack-mule men could 
tell of large blocks of forest at such an elevation 
above the surrounding grassy plains as to be 
entirely free from the visitation of frost ; and 
they with beaming eyes would listen to 
eloquent descriptions of the enormous size of 
and produce from some fe^Y ooffee trees, near 
■i'i 
some native hut in the interior ; and then 
the teira roclia was always richer the farther west 
one went. Wherever a railway was projected, land 
seekers would flock, land would be bought, forests 
felled and burned, coffee planted if not with plants 
or stumps then with seed, enormous crops of 
Indian corn would be taken off the 1 nd while the 
coffee plants (put in 12' by 12 ) would be growing, 
beans, and rice would be grown largely, houses 
would be built which would be the nucleus of 
luxuriant palaoettes to be. Villages would spring 
up, churches, post offices, tax-collector’s offices, 
would follow, and soft, hard and dry goods store- 
men would flock to the centres and build huts in 
which to vend their wares. So that what a short 
time ago was a waste wi'd as the dark continent 
would soon be turned into a flourishing country- 
side, so that by the time the railway would be 
opened traffic would be ready for it. 
But what about tho working population for the 
development of all this ? Well, we shall see as we 
get further on. Meanwhile wo are embarked — as 
they have it here — on the great metre gauge railway 
at Campinas. This Mogyana railway, whioh has 
given 14 per cent from the commencement to the 
shareholders and every year ad led a large sum 
to its reserve fund, whioh by its results owing 
to economical construction, and good traffic manage- 
ment has enamoured the people of this country 
with metre. gauge railways. 
In Brazil after this great success no other gauge 
is thought of, and only the first made line, the 
Dom Pedro 2 j, and the Sao Paulo, with the con- 
tinuation the Pauli^ta, are on a wide 5' 3" gauge. 
The extensions of the great Dom Pedro 2o, are now 
made on a metre gauge, and at the time the Go- 
vernment took this new departure with its own 
line, it was only after an agitation by the Club 
of Engineers of Bio de Janeiro that the authorities 
were prevented from tearing up about 100 miles 
of broad, and putting down a narrow, gauge. 
Although I have all the discussion of the Club in my 
possession I do not care to revive the subject ; how 
often has a disoussion of gauges hampered tho promo- 
tion and delayed construction of useml railway lines! 
But after this long digression, let us continue 
our journey along the Mogyana railway. Up to 
Mogymirim, some 45 miles, there is nothing worthy 
of note ; the country is undulating and owing to 
this the line is very crooked. The exploring engineers 
seemed loth to lose tho side of a small stream 
when they found one, and unwilling to load the trace 
where deep cuttings and heavy embankments would 
be necssary. As should be in tropical coun'ries 
the waterways are ample, open culverts being the 
rule. Bridges were first made of timber, but are 
now being replaced by iron. In large bridges, 
whioh are very few, preference seems to be 
given to the American truss system. Now and 
then a ridge higher than the ordinary level of the 
surrounding count ry has to be crossed, and there 
we see coffee fields. The current crop is nearly 
all picked, (September 1889) and the trees have 
suffered very much ; in fact old coffee trees are left 
a mass of dry sticks. The late dry season has 
contributed greatly to this, but the old band sees 
it is the result principally of excessive bearing. The 
dry weather has not prevented the weeds from 
growing, and although the majority of estates are 
pretty clean, many are requiring the mamoty. It 
is astonishing how soon coffee trees planted in 
terra rocha recover vigour after a few showers; 
* Better a line on any gauge than none, but the 
standard gauge will ultimately supersede all others. 
As we in Oeylou have now over 200 miles of 5' 6 ' 
railway made or under oonstruotiou, our wisdom is 
not to break gauge.— E d. T, 4, 
