Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1879-12-10
NO. 80.


In southern Brazil, cOfIee-ield seldom
lasts more than thirty years. The planta-
tiOns are made on the fertile hill-sides.
where the forest has been growing thick
and strong. But the soil there is never
deep-siX or eight inches of mold at the ut
most. 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 in
creases very slowly; in twenty-five or thirty
years, the strong growing c1ffee-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
brned- s., more proyident, 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 receives
a large accession TO its strength. Back of
the house there are two yards or small
fields, four acres, perhaps, together. 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 a gentle
slope, and water Is constantly running over
1t, so that it is always soaked. The pots.
through orifices 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. The nurslings
come from selected seeds Of half a dozen
varieties. Sr. s. has them planted
at first in small pots. 4 dozen slaves are
engaged trIsplauting the six-inch high
shoots TO larger pots. Little tired looking
children carry them about on their shoulders,
working on as steadily as the old ones, for
they are well 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 possible 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 c4rGSsCs the leaves: genere
Gus rains feed the tender roots; the ground
is kept free from in:ruding weeds and
bushes, and the planter waits for his har-
vest. 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. Mean
while, corn and maHdiOca are planted te-
tween the rows. Often in a new planta-
ton the expenses are nearly covered by
these subsidiary crops. In November only
a few Of the slaves are in the new fields.
November is the principal gathering month,
and almost the whole force must be at work
in the bearing orchards. From sunrise TO
sunset. men. women, and children are
gathering the berries in baskets, working
silently and steadily under the oyerseer's
eye. Every day, each slave gathers Of the
average berries enough to produce fifty
pounds Of dried coffee. The pickings are
in carts and brought TO the MILL
house, where the seeds are prepared
for the market