The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-12-18
A COffee.Field in Brazil.
From a very full account of the

From a very full account of the Bra
lillian Coffee Industry in Scri6ner for
December, we take this description of
the field-work, written from personal OBJ
servation by Herbert II. Smith:
In Southern Brazil, coffee-feld sell
dom lasts more than thirty years. The
plantations are made on the fertile hill.
sides, where the forest has been grow
ing thick and strong. But the soil here
is never deep-six or eight inches of
mold at the utmost. In the tropics there
are no long winters with mats of dead
vegetable matter rotting under the snow:
The leaves fall singly, and dry up until
they break into dust; logs and decaying
branches in the shady woods are carried
away by white ants and beetles; hence
the mold bed increases very.slowly; in
twenty-five or thirty years, the strong
growing cofee-trees eat it all up. Most
planters simply cut down the forest and
leave the trees to dry in the sun for six
or eight weeks, when they are burned:
s., more provident, lets the logs rot
where they lie, which they do in year
or two; in the open sunlight they are
saved from insects and the ground re-
ceives large accession to its strength.
Back of the house there are two yards
or small fields, four acres, perhaps, to-
gether. The ground is covered with
earthen pots set close together, only
leaving little pathways at intervals.
Each Of the two hundred thousand pots
contains a thriving young cofee-plant.
The ground forms gentle slope, and
water is constantly running over it, so
that it is always soaked. The pots,
through orifces at the bottoms, draw
up enough of this water to keep the
roots moistened. The young plants are
protected from the sun by mat screens
stretched on poles above the ground:
This is a costly system. Most of the
planters take root shoots at random
from the old fields and set them at once,
into unprepared ground. Sr. s. s
experiment has cost him probably $2O,-
900; the pots alone cost $1,000. But
he will make at least $4,000 by the op-
Grafton. In the first place, he gains
good year in the start that he gives to
these young plants. Then they are not
put back in the transplanting; the pots
are simply inverted and the roots come
out with the earth. They are set into
mold or compost which has been pre-
pared in deep holes. The tender root
lets catch hold of this at once, and in
day or two the plant is growing as we'll
as ever.
The musings come from selected
seed of half dozen varieties. Sr. s.
has them planted at first in small pots.
A dozen slaves are engaged transplant
ing the six-inch high shoots to larger
pots. Little tired-looking children car
ry them about on their shoulders, work
ing on as steadily as the old ones, for
they are we'll trained. Sr. S-wants
to make his plants last fifty years, so he
is careful and tender with them. The
little blacks will be free in 1892, so his
policy is to get as much work as posi-
BILE from them while he can.
The plants are set in rows, about ten
feet apart. They grow, and thrive, and
are happy, out on the hillside. Warm
sunshine caresses the leaves; generous
rains feed the tender roots; the ground
is kept free from intruding weeds and
bushes, and the planter waits for his
harvest. After four years, the trees are
six feet high and begin to bear. By the
sixth year, the crops are very large
three or even four pounds per tree at
times. Meanwhile, corn and mandioca
are planted between the rows. Often in
a new plantation the expenses are near
ly covered by these subsidiary crops.
In this month of November only n few
OF the slaves are in the new felds.-
November is the principal gathering
month, and almost the whole force must
be at work in the bearing orchards.
From sunrise to sunset, women and chill
dren are gathering the berries in baskets.
working silently and steadily under the
overseer's eye. Every day each slave
gathers of the average berries enough TO
produce fifty pounds of dried coffee:
The pickings are collected in carts and
brought to the mill house, where the
seeds must be prepared for the market.