Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1890-02-27
BRAzIL's CHIEF PRODUCT.
Introduction and Cultivation of the COT
fee Plant South of the Amazon.

Introduction and Cultivation of the Cof-
fee Plant South of the Amazon.
AS soon as the Brazilian revolution
broke out the coffee markets of New
York, Baltimore, IIavre and London
were greatly agitated. Nothing was
more natural, since it is known that
Brazil alone produces more than half
said also, wrongly or rightly, that the
emancipation of the slaves, upon whom
coffee cultivation mainly depended. had
great deal to do with the revolution
itself 1t appears, fortunately, that
neither the emancipation nor the revo-
luton will exercise any harmful inlu-
ence upon the production of the great
staple of Brazil.
Although the country was discovered
800 years ago, on April 90, 1900 by the
Portuguese Admiral Pedro Alvarez Ca
bral, more than 200 years elapsed before
coffee was known in Brazil. The first
trees were imported from Cayenne to
Para, in 1727, by Major Palheta, who re-
ceived them as present from Mrs.
Claude d'Orviliers, of the French colony
in Guiana. Export duties prevented,
however, extensive cultivation Of the
tree until the year 1861, when the OK
port duties were abolished. At the
same time Chancellor CASTILLO Branco
brought to Rio Janeiro some coffee
trees, which furnished the seed for
the Fazendas, or plantations of
Rezende and Sac Gonzalo, whence
tho cultivation spread in most districts
of the province of Rio Janeiro, and after
ward in the provinces of Sac Paulo and
Minas Geraes. In 1770 coffee was i'm
ported in the Maranhao, and the first
trees in the province of Bahia grew
from seed offered by the Capuchin friars
of Rio to planter of Villa Vicosca. The
great national product was created, and
statistics have repeatedly furnished tho
figures attained in its further develop
ment The number of coffee bags,
something like six millions and halt
yearly, is about the same as that of the
cotton bales produced in the United
States One hundred and twenty-eight
years of the persistent work of Brazil
has sufiiced to bring about such splen.
did result, which can not be altered by
political disturbances to any appreciable
extent. That is made evident by re-
view of the attention and great care
necessary for coffee cultivation; and il
this has been successful and progressive
up to the present time, it has been due
evidently to individual qualities, which
Brazilians are not likely to lose in the
future. The cultivation of coffee is MOI
an easy matter. The soil is soon worr
out and requires continuous attention in
order to maintain it in good condition
inasmuch as fertilizers are not as yet il
use and the only kind OF manure or fer
tilizing agent is found in the leaves o
the tree.
Another difficulty is that the plan
begins to produce beans only when it i.
two or three years old. From the sixth
year the crop keeps on steadily enlarg
ing, until the sixteenth year. From
that time until it attains its twenty
fifth year the crop is good and bad al
ternately. Between the twenty-fiftl
and thirty-ffth year beans can be gath
cred only at intervals varying from tw,
to three years; after the thirty-fftl
year crop is given occasionally, bu
only by trees planted in frst-clas
ground. Coffee is cultivated with prof
on hillsides, looking toward the risin,
sun, which are protected against tn,
cold southern winds of that austral coun
try. Such grounds are to be found al
over Brazil, and explains how COFFEE
cultivation extends all over the nev
great American republic, from the ANA
son down to the southern boundary O
the province Of Sac Paulo. though tn
production is the most considerable Il
the provinces of Rio Jaueiro. Nina
Geraes and Sac Paule- Y. Tribune