Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-04-23

In southern Brazil, a coIee-feld 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 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 sngly 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 increas-
es very slowly; in twenty-five or thirty
years, the strong-growing cofiee-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 let's the logs rot
where they lie, which they do in a year or
two in the open sunlight they are saved
from insects, and the ground receives 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 -thous-
and pots contain thriving young coffee
plant. The ground forms a 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 plant
ers take root shoots at random from the old
fields and set them at once into unprepared
ground. Sr. SIS experiment has cost
him probably $4,000; the pots alone cost
Sl1 900. But he will make at least $50, 900
by the operation. In the first place, he gains
a 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 in
verted and the roots come out with the earth.
They are set into mold or compost which has
been prepared in deep holes. The tender
rootlets catch hold of this at once, and in a
day or two the plant is growing as well as
ever.
The nurslings come from selected seeds of
half a dozen varieties. Sr. S has them
planted at first in small pots A dozen slaves
are engaged transplanting 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 care
full 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 hill-side. Warm sunshine caresses
the leaves generous rains feed the tender
roots the ground is kept free from ntruding
weeds and bushes, ant 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 Mean
while, corn and mandioca are planted be-
ha Offaf, in, ,,loptatioy,
the expenses are nearly covered by these
subsidiary crops.
In this month of November only a few of
the slaves are in the new fields. November
is the principal gathering month, aud almost
the whole force must be at work i'll the bear
ing orchards. From sunrise TO sunset, men,
women, and children are gathering the ber-
ries in baskets working silently and steadily
under the overseer's eye Every day each
slave gathers on 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 pre-
pared for the market - Sc115ner's Monthly.