550 
THE  TROPICAI 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb.  I,  1897. 
exceptions,  however,  to  this  ru’6j  and  the  present  is 
one.  There  are  many  estates  in  tlie  District  of  Chi- 
charras  fairly  well  establifhed,  and  are  likely  fields 
to  attract  capital ; hut  a timely  warning  is  herewith 
offered  and  it  will  be  well  for  intending  investors 
to  investigate  thoroughly  what  I say  before  com- 
mitting themselves. 
I sliall  before  long  have  the  pleasures  of  sending  to 
my  friends  in  New  Iberia,  a tale  of  life  in  Mexico. — 
Yours  truly,  J.  W.  I'ousvth. 
— Jberia  Enter[»\S',  Nov.  21. 
COFFEE  PLANTING  IN  BRAZIL. 
MR.  TALBOT’S  VISIT  TO  THE  DUMONT  CO.’S 
PROPERTY. 
Mr.  G.  A.  Talbot,  who  returned  to  tlie  Island  on 
on  18tli  Jan.  last  was  good  enough  to  give  an 
Observer  representative  some  interesting  parti- 
culars, regarding  the  nmmmt  Coll'ee  ( 'ompany’s 
estates  which  he  has  been  visiting.  In  reply 
to  questions,  Mr.  Talbot  said  : — “ The  jjroperty  of 
the  Company  consists  of  about  14,0JJ  acres  in 
bearing.  It  is  situated  about  1,.300  feet  above 
the_  sea  level  ; but  you  must  remember  that  that 
it  is  not  the  same  as  l.oOO  feet  in  Ceylon,  for 
here  coffee  land  is  only  about  7 degrees  north 
of  the  equator,  and  in  Brazil,  the  Company’s 
property  is  about  25  degrees  to  the  south  of  the 
line.  Consequenrdy,  the  Brazilian  climate  is 
much  more  temperate,  resembling  that  of 
Arabia.  Yes,  the  estate  is  planted  with  Arahica. 
As  regards  the  location  of  the  estate,  it  is 
situated  in  San  Paulo  state,  about  300  miles 
distant  from  tlie  town  of  that  name.  A 
railway  runs  from  San  Paulo  to  within  13 
miles  of  the  Company’s  property;  and  between 
the  ternr'nus  and  the  estate,  We  have  a railway 
of  our  own.  Tliis  railw.iy  is  of  2 feet  gauge.” 
Can  you  give  me  any  figures  as  to  “ the  cost 
of  haulage,  working  expenses,  etc.” 
I cannot  give  you  any  precise  figures,  but  it  cer^ 
t.ainly  answers  very  well  and  svorks  economically. 
We  also  run  passengers  over  the  railway  ; tlie 
carriages  are  entered  from  the  ends,  and 
are  fairly  comfortable.  The  gooils  wag- 
gons are  of  the  ordinary  bogie  type.  I 
cannot  work  out  the  cost  of  transport  i>er  cwt 
but  I know  that  in  the  aggregate  the  cost  is 
low  as  compared  with  the  cost  of  similar  transjiort 
in  Ceylon.  Santos  is  our  market,  from  which 
the  coffee  is  shipped.” 
“ What  about  the  yield  per  acre  ?” 
I think  I am  safe  in  saying  that  the  average 
yield  per  acre  is  about  11  cwc.  People  in  the 
district  think  that  the  labour  supply  is  sufficient  ; 
but,  according  to  Ceylon  ideas,  there  are  not  enough 
of  labourers.  The  labourers  are  principally 
Italians.  They  are  not  indentured.  I believe 
you  have  to  requisition  the  Brazilian  Government 
for  labourers  and  they  assist  in  some  way  in  bring- 
ing tlieni  over.  I went  to  see  .some  of  the  agents 
in  Genoa  on  my  way  out,  and  they  told  me.  if 
I went  through  this  form,  they  could  send  me 
as  many  as  1 wanted.  Tiie  bulk  of  the  Italian 
labourers  are  peasants  from  the  plains  of 
Lombardy,  with  blue  eyes  and  fair  hair  and 
many  of  them  line  looking  men  and  women. 
They  do  not  pick  so  well  as  we  did  with  Tamils 
in  Ceylon. 
“ Can  Europea.'is  perform  manual  labour  in  the 
open  without  in|ury  to  he.alth?” 
“ Oh  yes ! the  pro[)erty  is  just  outside  the 
tropics  and  the  climate  is  very  healthy,  the 
daily  pay  is  something  over  three  shillings  per 
heatl?” 
Does  not  this  high  rate  of  pay  largely  increase 
the  cost  of  |)roduction  V 
Noj  because  tilere  is  so  little  cultivation.  The 
cost  is  about  thirteen  sliilliiigs  per  cwt.  All  the 
cultivation  WC  have  to  do  is  hoeing  and  pickiiig 
and  the  yield  per  acre  being  large,  it  makes  the 
cost  per  cwt.  much  cheaper  than  it  was  in  Ceylon; 
In  Brazil  we  do  none  of  the  pinning,  draining, 
handling  and  other  odds  and  ends  which  were' 
done  by  Ceylon  planters. 
“ Dee?  the  ab.sence  _df  pruning  not  cau.se  the 
bushes  to  deteriorate?” 
Pruning  appears  to  be  unnecessary  seeing  the 
large  yields  we  are  getting.  Draining  can  be  dis- 
pensed with  as  the  rainfall  is  not  heavy.  There 
was  no  rain  gauge  available  but  I should  .say  the 
rainfall  was  about  70  inches  a year.” 
“What  about  the  temperature?” 
“ I fancy  it  would  average  about  70  degrees. 
Picking  begins  in  April  and  goes  on  till  about 
the  end  of  August.  There  is  a good  deal  of 
machinery  on  the  estate  but  the  curing  is  not 
nearly  so  well  done  as  it  is  here.  However, 
we  hope  that  by  introducing  Ceylon  methods,  we 
will  be  able  to  improve  the  quality  very  much, 
and  to  get  a very  much  better  price.  In  Ceylon, 
as  most  people  know,  we  pull  the  coffee  when 
it  is  ripe,  pulp,  it,  dry  it,  and  then  what  they 
call,  peel  it  whereas  in  Brazil  they  pulp  only 
a very  small  proportion  they  let  it  dry  in  the 
cherry  and  then  hull  it  with  a huller.  The  re- 
sult is  that  the  husk  being  on  the  coffee  so 
long  takes  off  what  is  o.tlled  the  “colour”  or 
quality  and  it  gives  an  inferior  flavour  as  a 
sort  of  fermentation  goes  on.  What  we  jiro- 
pose  to  do  is  first  to  get  the  picking  carefully 
done,  and  by  introducing  Ceylon  methods  and 
Ceylon  machinery  we  hope  to  get  a better  sort 
of  coffee.  That  cannot  he  done  at  once,  but  it 
can  be  done  by  degrees.  There  will  bo  a little  diffi- 
culty in  getting  the  men  to  adopt  the  new 
methods  ; and,  probably,  they  will  want  higher 
wages  for  more  careful  [ilucking,  and  in  that 
way  it  will  increase  the  cost  of  production,  no 
doubt,  but  we  hope  it  will  give  us  something 
like  Ceylon  coffee.  As  I have  said,  peojile  on 
the  estate  say  we  have  all  the  labour  we  want 
and  that  we  can  get  as  many  as  we  like,  which 
is  very  satisfactory  as  the  iiitroiluction  of  new 
methods  will  nece.ssitate  a laiger  labour  force, 
In  saying  tint  much  less  cultivation  was  neces- 
.sary  in  Brazil  than  in  Ceylon  I forgot  to  men- 
tion that  all  the  weeding  is  done  with  the 
hoe  and  not  by  hand  picking,  the  work  being 
done  about  live  times  a year.  In  Ceylon 
owing  to  the  heavy  rainfall,  hoeing  is  im- 
possible as  the  soil  would  be  washed  away 
In  Brazil  no  such  diliiculty  presents  itself  and 
consequently  the  ex|jeiise  of  weeding  is  very 
much  less.  The  coffee  bushes  grow  about  12 
feet  high,  but  they  are  not  so  lanky  as  those 
in  Ceylon  becau.se  of  the  more  temperate  climate 
of  Brazil.  The  Italians  have  a comparatively  easy 
time.  When  they  are  not  required  by  the  estate 
they  cultivate  maize  in  the  coffee  fields  for  them- 
selves. The  maize  they  use  for  fattening  pigs, 
and  they  contrive  to  make  a good  deal  of  money 
out  of  it.  III  some  of  the  jmung  coffee  fields  you 
can  scarcely  see  the  coffee  for  maize. 
“ Does  it  not  smollier  the  coffee  and  exhaust 
the  soil  ?” 
“ It  is  .s.aid  not  to  injure  it  and  the  soil  seems 
so  rich  as  to  be  able  to  grow  both.  I,  however, 
do  not  like  it,  and  I hope  we  shall  be  able  to 
stop,  to  some  extent  at  least,  maize  being  planted 
among  the  coffee. 
“ \N’hat  about  the  cost  of  weeding?” 
Weeding  is  done  by  contract,  80  milreis  being 
paid  for  1,000  trees,  tiiat  is  about  .fl  per  acre,” 
