Evening star., 1962-09-12
BY GEORGE SHERMAN
Star staff Writer

6tdA ckaAl HIlteT
RECIFE, Brazil. - The road
southwark from Recife along
the Atlantic bulge Of Northeast
Brazil Is q shimmering sheet
Of concrete set against rich
iron-red dirt.
This new highway is a small
symptom Of the gradual change
Third Of Sevsrel ertieIes on BraziI.
coming to this most poverty
stricken part Of Brazil. Along
its length you find the best
and worst-that Northeast Bra
zil has to offer.
The road cuts through the
60-mile wide humid coastal
strip, rich in sugar cane and
poor in the fostering masses of
peasants who till but do not
own the land.
At Cabo, a small but budding
industrial town, the bridge is
out. Torrential rains have
turned quiet creeks into raging
rivers, and at other spots
caused landslides from over
hanging cliffs. The detour Of
-ruts and mud hastily cut
through the fields tests the en-
durance Of both car and pas
.sengers.
But at ordeal's end you
emerge onto the smooth con-
-cret eroad at a brightly Lighted
construction site. A new chem
ical plant is slowly being built
part Of the scheme to shift
northward part of the indus
trial might now centered in
southern Brazil.
Island In Sugar Cane
This infant industrial COM
plex still is an isolated island
in the sea Of sugar cane. Fields
Of waving stalks line the road
for miles. and at times the tall
chimneys of sugar mills are just
visible on the horizon. Some
of these plantations employ the
most modern techniques, but
many more just hobble along
under the antiquated manage
ment Of absentee landlords.
"Pumaty" plantation - a
"medium-sized" sugar manor of
10000 acres south Of Recife-
is one Of the modern ones. Once
you desert the main road for a
dirt track, you wind through
a self-contained kingdom Of su-
gar cane. sugar refinery, huge
storage tanks of molasses and
alcohol, peasant huts and gen.
eral stores.
Some 1000 persons eat, sleep
and work their lives out on
this plantation. Many have
never known any other world.
Midwives employed by the plan
tation bring their babies into
the world. Doctors employed
by the plantation handle their
diseases. Schools built by the
plantation are now educating
their children. An industrious
Japanese family imported by
the plantation is working 10
acres Of vegetable land to sup
ply food and example for the
Brazilian peasants who are be-
ing given one-half-acre plots
around their homes.
Hard d-Working Head Man
And at the center Of the
estate lies the manor house.
With wide veranda. open airy
rooms, and scarlet and green
tropical flora. it is the modest
Brazilian version Of Gone
With the Wind" plantation
splendor. A new rock-garden
and large lake being carved out
of the landscape in front give
an added dash of modernity.
"Pumaty"-an Indian name
is the stronghold of the Ca
bral de Costa family. They do
not live up to the stereotype
Of the feudal landowner in Bra
zil. Marcello-the head Of the
family-is a lean, hard-work-
ing man who devotes all his
time and energy to the lands
his family has inherited.
ITO me wasted land is like
wasted bread" he said. THE
government should tax unused
land to the hilt." He admitted
that at the moment landown-
ers who work their property
inefficiently or not at all pay
almost no taxes, and that this
system is both holding back
agricultural production and
perpetuating an archaic land
system.
Calls Self Maverick
He also admitted that he Is
something Of a m avertck
among his class.
a IF anyone else said some Of
the things I do to my land
owning friends" he smiled, "he
would either be accused Of
communism or thrown in jail"
We talked on the broad We
randa before lunch. Mrs. de
Costa - a highly fashionable
lady from Rio de Janeiro-su-
pervised cocktails and horS-
d. oeuvres, while her husband
surveyed the life of the plan
tation. His stub bly, beard,
tight sun-tanned skin. work.
hardened hands, and mud
caked shoes were straight from
the usual morning jeep-tour of
the estate.
"Marcello and his brother
have trebled sugar production
while reducing the amount Of
land devoted to sugar by some
400 hectares about 1000
acres)," chimed in the plan
tation manager.
Irrigation and Fertilization
How? by the system cs COM
bined irrigation scI fertiliza-
tion we began in 1885," came
the answer. How complicated