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Show UIMZIL'S CHILF PRODUCT. INT1.0DC0T10S AD CULTIVATION m THE COFI-EE l"LATSOUTJt OI THE AJfA70, As soon as the Brazilian revolution revolu-tion broke out the coHee markets of Xen York, Jtaltimore, Havre and London were greatly agitated. Nothing was more natural, since it is known that Brazil alone produces pro-duces more than half thecoUVe crop In the world. Ithasbcen said also, rougly or rightly, that the emancipation eman-cipation cftlie slaves, upon whom coffee cultivation mainly depended, had a great deal to do with tho revolution Itself. It appears, fortunately, fortu-nately, that neither the emancipation emancipa-tion nor the revolution will exercie any harmful influence upon the production of the great staple of Brazil. Although Uie couutrt wasdl'cov-ered wasdl'cov-ered S39 years ago, on April 22, 1500, by the l'ortuguese Admiral l'edro Alvarez Cabral, more than 200 years elapsed before cofTre was known in Brazil. The firt tree were Inirt-ed Inirt-ed from Cayenne to Para, 17 J7, Ii Mnjor l'alhtta, who received tliirn as a present from Mrs. Clau Je d'Or-vlilers, d'Or-vlilers, of tlie Frendi colony In Guiana. Export duties prevented, how cver.extensiyecuHlvation of the tree until the year 17GI, whin till, export duties wire abolL-bed. At the same time Chancellor Castello Branco brought to Bio Janeiro some coflee trees, whicli furnished the seed for the Kazeudas, or plantations of Bozende and Sao Gonzalo, w hence the cultivation spread In met districts dis-tricts of the province of Bio Janeiro, and afterwards In tho provinces of Sao Baulo and Minas Geraes. In 1770 coffee was imported in the Ma-nmliao, Ma-nmliao, and the tirst treis in the province of Bahia grew fioni seed offered ly the Capuiliiii friirs of Rio to a planter of ilia Vicojcj. The great national product was treated, tre-ated, and statistics have ripcatidly furnished the figures attiincd in it turthir development The numUr of cetlee bags, something like -ix millions and 3 half earl.x , Is about the same as that of the cotton bales produced in the United btatts One Hundred and twintj tllt years of the persistent work of Brazil has sufficed to bring about sucli a splendid splen-did result, wlilrh can not bo altered by political disturbances to any n preciablo extent Tliat Is made evident evi-dent by a review of the attention and great care necessary for coffee cultivation; and if this has been successful and progressive up to the present tlmt, it has been due evidently evi-dently to individual qualities, uhkli Brazilians are not likely to lose in tin future. The cultivation cf coflee is not an ca?y matter. The ctt fn armn unm nut Am! rHMllfr, continuous attention in order to maintain it in good condition, Inasmuch Inas-much as fertilizers are not as yet in use and the only kind of manure or fertilizing agents Is found In the leaves of the trees. Another difllculty Is that the plant begins to produce beans only when it is tw o or three yearn old. From the sixth year the crop keeps on steadily enlarging, until thesix-teenth thesix-teenth ) car. I-rom that time until it attains its twenty-fifth year the crop is good and lad alternately. Between the hvmty-fllth ahd thirty -fifth year beans can bo gathered gath-ered only at intervals varying from two to thrte years; after the thirty-fifth thirty-fifth y ear a crop is given occasionally, occasion-ally, but only by trees planted In first-class groundi Coffee Is cultivated culti-vated with profit on hillside?, looking look-ing toward the rising sun, which are protected against the cold southern windiof that austral country. Such grounds are to bo found all over Brazil, and explains iiow"coflee cultivation extends all over the new great American republic, from the Amazon down to tho southern boundary of the province of Sao Paulo, though the production is the nost considerable In the provinces of Bio Janeiro, Minas Geraes and Sao Tauio. A Y.Tnbunc. |
