The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1879-12-12
A Coffee.FIeld In Brazil.

From very full account Of the Brazilian
Coffee Industry in Scribner for December, we
take this description OF the field work, written
from personal observation by Herbert H.
Smith:
In southern Brazil, coffee-feld seldom
lasts more than thirty years. The plantations
are made on the fertile hill sides, where the
forest has been growing 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 coffee 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 receives large accession to
its strength. .l.
Back of the house there are two yards or
small fields, four acres, perhaps, together.
The ground is covered with eartben pots set
close together, only leaving little pathways
at intervals. Each of the two hundred thou
sand pots contains thriving young coffee
plant. The ground forms gentle slope, and
water is constantly running over it, so that
it is always soaked The pots, through orr
fees 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 costly system. Most of the planters
take root shoots at random from the old fields
and set them at once into unpre pared ground.
Sr. SIS experiment has cost him probably
$4,000; the pots alone cost $1,000. But
he will make at least $50, 900 by the operation
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 trans
planting; the pots are simply inverted and
the roots come out with the earth. They art
set into mold or compost which has been pre-
pared in deep holes. The tender rootlets
catch hold of this at once, and in day or two
the plant is growing as we II as ever.
The nurslings come from selected seeds O.
half dozen varieties. Sr. S. has then
planted at first in small pots. A dozen slave
are engaged transplanting the six-inch higl
shoots to larger pots. Little tired lookin,
children carry them about Oh their shoulders
working on as steadily as the old ones, 70
they are we'll trained. Sr. S. wants t.
make his plants last fifty years, SO he
careful and tender with them. The it'll
blacks will be free 10 1892. so his policy is t
get as much work as possible from then
while he can.
The plants are set in rows about ten fec
apart. They grow, and thrive, and are happ
out on the hillside Warm sunshine caresse
the leaves; generous rains feed the tende
roots; the ground is kept free from intrudin
weeds and bushes, and the planter waits ft
: | Ills hhf'eSt' hileT lour ycuIs, tnc strceS n
six feet high and begin to bear. By the sixt
year, the crops are very large,-three or eve
four pounds per tree at times. Meanwhile
corn and mandioca are planted between IL
rows Often in new plantation the expen
es are nearly covered by these subsidial
d crops.
In the month of November only few
the slaves are in the new fields. Novemb
3 is the principal gathering month, and slmo
the whole force must be at work in the bea
t orchards. From sunrise to sunset, me
l. women, and children are gathering the berri
p in baskets, working silently and steadily und
), the overseer's eye. Every day, each sla
q gathers on the average berries enough to pI
u duce fifty pounds of dried coffee. The pic
l ings are collected in carts and brought to t
'e mil-house, where the seeds must be prepar
l. for the market. .lt