Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-10

American settlers. I refer to that of
Mr. Ezekiel Pyles of Georgia. He came
here at the age of twenty five, and he
has under cultivation and in pasture
something like a thousand acres of
land. He has 400 acres which are now
in crops of one kind or other, and his
fields are as clean as any garden in
Georgia. His home is far more COM
Portable than the average farmhouse of
Georgia, and it's luxury approximates
that Of some of the richest homes of
the south. Mr.. Pyles has thirty men
working on his farm. They ali have
homes there and most of them have
families.
This estate is situated about ten miles
from Villa Americana. and 1 went there
in an automobile in company with
young DR.. Hall. son Of Mr.. Charles
NJ. Hall. of whom I have written. We
and at one time crossed a fazenda Of
5000 acres owned by Portuguese, who
mad married Brazilian. Mr.. Pyles'
iarm ad1oins that estate, but it is far
better cultivated.
In going over the Pyles farm we
used the automobile. riding through
wide roads from field to field. Every
1hIng was growing luxuriantly. I saw
neias or sugar cane. cotton and rice,
and also of cowpeas and velvet beans
Mr.. Pyles tells me that the prices of
cowpeas are So or SO busheI, and that
ne Is raising them to supply the farm
ers or the nefghborhood who are be-
coming interested in advanced agri-
lands by the use. of such CROPS. He
says there is market for all the corn
ana rice that can be raised, and that
the sugar cane when turned into sugar
ana rum brings a good price
asked Ezekiel Pyles as to the char
acter OF farming in the country about.
He said it is poorly done. Before the
americans came the people used moth
ing but hoes to cultivate the fields.
I Inc new settlers brought in American
where. The people have learned our
metnods OF farming from them and
many OF them are better Off from the
1act OF the American colony.
ed 1slore our people came many Of the
neids were covered with bunch grass
SO tough that it could not be dug out
with hoe The Americans bourht
TINS land at low prices and used their
blows to turn the grass under. The
grass made good fertilizer and the
land trebled in price.
asked as to the coffee possibilities.
Mr.. Pyles replied that the land about
villa Americana is not fitted for coffee
growing on account of the frosts. al
though the state of Sac Paulo has the
largest coffee plantations of the world
and supplies the greater part of the
worlds crop. He says the pasture is
excellent for cattle and mules, and that
Mr.. Hall is raising mules to supply the
local demand. Big mules sell well. a
good team will bring over 5000 and
mules as large as ours bring as much
as $4OO or $500 per team. The chief
working animals are oxen, which are
yoked up by the necks instead of the
MONS. Sometimes as many as a dozen
yokes Will be harnessed to one wagon,
and in moving heavy machinery thirty
the trucks over the road. The ordi-
nary ox-cart has a wheel of solid wood.
Inc driver has long goad. at the end
OF which Is ring and sharp point,
The latter is driven into the oxen to
prod them along.
This is no place for Americans with
out money. The farm hands get wages
of about IS cents a day. with free
house rent. The tenant house is a
shack about fifteen feet square and
from eight to ten feet in height. The
whole family sleeps on the floor. The
stove is usually of brick with a sheet
people Is rice. beans, dried beef and
bacon. The farm hands work from day
light to dark. They have a half hour
off for breakfast and forty minutes for
dinner. The working day is fourteen
hours in the summer and ten or eleven
in the winter. The climate Is such that
the work goes on all the year round.
The grass Is always green and several
crops can be raised on the same ground
in one. year. The ordinary workingman
needs but little clothing, his usual at