Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-03-20
Prof Agassiz's Account of a Bra
lillian Coffee Plantation.

lillian Coffee Plantation.
The following desert ption of a coffee
plantation in Brazil is from "A Journey
in Brazil, - by Professor and Mrs. Louis
Agassiz, in press by Ticknor & Fields.
tfThe Fazenda da FOrtaleza de Santa
Anna lies at the foot OF the Sierra de
BabylOnia. The house itself makes a
part Of a succession of low white build
ings, enclosing an oblOng square divi-
ded into neat lots, destined for drying
coffee. This drying of the coffee in the
immediate vicinity of the house, though
it seems very general custom, must be
an uncomfortable one; for the drying
lots are laid down in q dazzling white
GENE at, from the glare of which, IN this
hot climate, the eye turns WearIly away
longing for a green spot on which to
rest. Just behind the house, on the
slope of the hill, is the orangeFy. I am
never tired of these golden orchards,
and this was one of especial beauty.
The small, deep eolOred tangerines,
sometimes twenty or thirty in one clus-
ter. the large choice orange, tLGYd3gjG
SeIecta,' as it is called, often ten or
twelve together in single bunch bear
ing the branches to the ground with
their weight (; the paler 'LtH1GO dOce,' or
sweet lemon, rather insi pid, but great
ly esteemed here for its cool refreshing
properties, all these, with many others,
/ for the variety Of oranges is far greater
than we of the temperate zone conceive
/ it to be, make a mass of color in which
gold, deep orange and pale yellow are
| blended wonderfully with the back
beyond the house enclosure, on the
/ opposite side Of the road, are the gar
I dens, with aviary, ana fish ponds in
/ the centre. With these exceptions, all
/ of the property which is not forest is
/ devoted to coffee, covering all the hill
] -4 F-r rr1f1ne a. 8Ninn unnH fc
/ planted in nurseries especially prepar-
| ed, where il uudergrows its first years
! growth, it is then transplanted to its
! permanent home, and begins to bear in
/ about three years, the first crop being
| of course, a very light one. From that
1 time forward, under good care and with
! favorable soil, it viii continue to bear
/ aud even yield two crops or more annu-
/ ally, for thirty years in succession. At
/ that time the shrubs and soil are alike
/ tom of the country, the fazendeirO cuts
/ down new forest and begins a new
plantation, completely abandoning his
old one, without a thought of redeeming
or fertilizing the exhausted land.
''One of the long-sighted reforms un-
! dertalzen by our host is the manuring
4 of all the old deserted plantations on
/ his estate. He has already number
/ of vigorous young plantations, which
/ promise to be as good as if virgin for
| est had been sacrificed to produce them.
/ He wishes not only to preserve the
wood on his own estate, and to show
| that agriculture need not be cultivated
/ ted at the expense of taste and beauty,
but to remind his country people also,
4 that, as extensive as are the forests,
they viii not last forever, and that it
/ will be necessary to emigrate before
long to find new coffee grounds, if the
/ old ones are to be considered worthless.
/ Another of his reforms is that of the
roads. already alluded to. The Ordlna-
| rY roads in the coffee plantations, like
! the mule tracks all over the country
are carried straight up the sides of the
hills between the lines of shrubs, gull
lied by every rain, and offering, be-
sides, so steep an ascent that even with
/ eight or ten oxen it is often quite impos-
sible to drive the clumsy, old fashioned
carts up the slope, and the negroes are
obliged to bring great part of their
harvest down on their heads. An
/ American, who has been great deal on
the coffee fazendas in this region, told
me that he had seen negroes bringing
/ enormous burdens of this kind on their
heads down almost vertical slopes.
"On Senior Lagos estate all these old
roads are abandoned, except where they
are planted here and there with alleys
of orange trees for the use of the ne
qroes, and he has substituted for them
winding roads in the side Of the hill
with a very gradual ascent, so that light
carts dragged by single mule can trans
port all the harvest from summit of the
plantation to the drying ground. It
was the harvesting season., and the
spectacle was a pretty one. The ne
groes, men and women, were scattered
about the plantation with broad shalt
low trays, made Of plated grass or
bamboo, strapped over their shoulders
and supported at their waists into
these they were gathering the coffee,
some of the berries being brilliantly
red, some already beginning to dry and
turn brown, while here and there was
a green one not yet quite ripe, but soon
to ripen in the scOrching sun. Little
black children Weresitting on the
ground and gathering what fell under
the bushes, singing at their work amo-
notonous but rather pretty snatch songs
in which some took the first and other,
the second making not inharmOniOus
music.
Gas their baskets were filed they
came to the administrator to receive a
little metal ticket on which the amount
of their work was marked. A task is
J allotted to each One-sO much to full
} grown man, so much to woman with
. Young children, so much to a child
and each one is paid for whatever he
/ may do over and above it. The requis-
itiOn is a very monderate one, so that
the industrious have an opportunity OF
r making a little money independently.
~ III CIV NA4Sy Ill AS9CAA1 S4AOAA eASA2~S''
{ and are paid OH the spot for any extra
work. From the harvesting ground
. we followed the carts down to the place
where their burden is deposited. On
: their return from the plantation the ne
groes divide the days harvest, and dis
pose it in little mounds on the drying
r ground. When pretty equally dried,
J the coffee is spread out in thin even lay
r ers over the whole enclosure, where il
; is baked for the last time. 1t is then
hulled by a very simple machine in use
on almost all the fasendas, and the pro-
cess is complete. At noon we bade
] goodbye to our kind hosts, and started
e for Juiz de Fora. Our stage was not q
I bad imitation of NOah's ark, for we
. carried with us the beasts of the field
! and the birds of the air and the fishes
: from the waters, to say nothing of trees
[ from the fOrest.'
g