The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1890-09-06
BRAZIL'S CHIEF PRODUCT.
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, Havre and London
were greatly agitated. Nothing was
more natural, since it is known that
Brazil alone produces more than half
the coffee crop in the world. 1t has been
said also, wrongly or rightly, that the
emancipation Of the slaves, upon whom
coffee cultivation mainly depended, had
agreat deal to do with the revolution
itself. 1t appears, fortunately, that
neither the emancipation nor the revo-
luton will exercise any harmful inhu-
ence upon the production of the great
staple Of Brazil.
Although the country was discovered
SS9 years ago, on April 22 f5OO, 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 1877, by Major Palheta, who re-
celved them as present from Mrs
Claude d'Orviliers, of the French colony
in Guiana. Export duties prevented.
tree until the year 1901, when the ex-
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
hezende and Sac Gonzalo, whence
the cultivation spread in most districts
OF the province of Rio Janeiro, and after
ward in the provinces of Sac Paulo and
Mlnas 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 Nio to planter ~ Villa Vicosca The
great national product was created, and
statistics have repeatedly furnished the
ngures attained in its further deyelon-
ment The number of coffee bags.
something like six millions and a half
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 sufticed to bring about such a splen-
oio result, which can not be altered by
polltlcal disturbances to any appreciable
extent. That is made evident by a re-
view OF the attention and great care
necessary for coffee CIVILIZATIONS; and il
thls has been successful and progressive
up to the present time, it has been due
evidently to individual qualities, which
brazillans are not likely to lose in the
future. The cultivation OF coffee is not
an easy matter. The soil is soon worn
out and requires continuous attention in
order to maintain it in good condition.
lnasmuch as fertilizers are not as vet in
use and the only kind of manure or fer
tlllzlng agent Is found in the leaves OF
the tree.
Another difficulty is that the plant
begins to produce beans only when it is
Two or three, years old. From the sixth
year the crop keeps on steadily enlare-
ing, until the sixteenth year. From
mat time until it attains its twenty
NTH year the crop is good and bad al
'ernately. Between the twentv.fifth
ana thirty-ffth year beans can be gath
erea only at intervals varying from two
70 three years; after the thirty-fifth
year a crop is given occasionally, but
ohiy by trees planted in first-class
ground. Coffee is cultivated with profit
oh hllisldes, looking toward the rising
sun, which are protected against the
cola southern winds Of that austral coun-
Try. Such grounds are to be found all
over Brazil, and explains how coffee
cultivation extends all over the new
great American republic, from the ANA
e lon down to the southern boundary Of
'he province Of Sac Paulo, though the
PROD duction Is the most considerable in
me provinces Of Rio Janeiro, Minas
'eraes and Sac Paulo.--N Y. Tribune.