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Read Ebook: Working With the Hands Being a Sequel to Up from Slavery Covering the Author's Experiences in Industrial Training at Tuskegee by Washington Booker T Johnston Frances Benjamin Photographer
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For some years cattle breeding has been carried on successfully enough, but on a comparatively small scale, in this State. Experiments have been made in crossing the best local breeds, principally the Carac?, with good foreign breeds, such as the Jersey, Durham and Dutch stocks. Pigs of the Berkshire, Yorkshire, Canasters and Tatus type are the favourites in S?o Paulo, and seem to flourish in that climate.
Sheep-breeding is also successful, and would be even more so if proper care were taken of the animals. Of the wool-producing kinds, those preferred are the Leicester, Merino, Oxford and Lincoln, the Oxford having already produced quite excellent results.
The Government of the State, I understand, is at present giving great attention to the matter, and is using discrimination in the selection of suitable breeds from foreign countries in order to procure the best animals of various kinds for the production of meat, butter, and hides. I also believe that an endeavour is being made to produce in the State a good breed of horses for military and other purposes.
The elevation of S?o Paulo city is 2,450 ft. above the sea level.
Thanks to the kindness of the President of the Paulista Railway, a special saloon carriage was placed at my disposal when I left S?o Paulo, and a railway inspector sent to escort me and furnish me with any information I required. I preferred travelling seated in front of the engine, where I could obtain the full view of the interesting scenery through which we were to pass.
The Paulista Railway was interesting, as it was the first line in Brazil constructed entirely with Brazilian capital. The line was begun in 1870, but since that date several extensions have been successfully laid out. Up to 1909 the lines owned and worked by the Paulista Railway were the 1?60-metre-gauge trunk line from Jundiahy to Descalvado , and the two branch lines of the same gauge from Cordeiro to Rio Claro; Laranja Azeda to S. Veridiana; the two branch lines of 0?60 m. gauge from Descalvado to Aurora and from Porto Ferreira to S. Rita do Passo Quatro. Then they possessed the one-metre trunk line from Rio Claro to Araraquara, with the following branch and extension lines: Visconde de Rio Claro to Jahu; Araraquara to Jaboticabal; Bebedouro to Barretos; Mogy Guasso Rinc?o to Pontal; S. Carlos to S. Euxodia and Rib. Bonita; Agudos to Dois Corregos and Piratininga; and the loop line through Brotas. Of the total charters for 1,114 kil. 261 have been granted by the Federal Government and are under their supervision, whereas 583 kil. are under charter granted by the State of S?o Paulo.
The following statistics taken from the last Brazilian Year Book show the wonderful development of the passenger and goods traffic on the Paulista Railway:--
At Jundiahy the Paulista Company has extensive repairing shops for engines. Formerly they had there also shops for building carriages, but these are now constructed at the Rio Claro Station, partly from material which comes from abroad. The rolling stock of the Company is excellent in every way--quite up-to-date, and kept in good condition--almost too luxurious for the kind of passengers it has to carry.
It is principally after leaving Campinas that the scenery of the line is really beautiful--wonderful undulating country--but with no habitations, except, perhaps, a few miserable sheds miles and miles apart. At Nueva Odena the Government is experimenting with Russian and Italian labourers, for whom it has built a neat little colony. After a time each labourer becomes the owner of the land he has cultivated. I am told that the colony is a success.
Coffee--The Dumont Railway
MY object in travelling by the Paulista Railway was to inspect the line on my way to the immense coffee plantations at Martinho Prado, owned by Conselheiro Antonio Prado. The estate is situated at an elevation above the sea level of 1,780 ft., upon fertile red soil. It is difficult, without seeing them, to realize the extent and beauty of those coffee groves--miles and miles of parallel lines of trees of a healthy, dark green, shining foliage. A full-grown coffee tree, as everybody knows, varies in height from 6 ft. to 14 or 15 ft. according to the variety, the climate, and quality of the soil. It possesses a slender stem, straight and polished, seldom larger than 3 to 5 in. in diameter, from which shoot out horizontal or slightly oblique branches--the larger quite close to the soil--which gradually diminish in length to its summit. The small white blossom of the coffee tree is not unlike jessamine in shape and also in odour. The fruit, green in its youth, gradually becomes of a yellowish tint and then of a bright vermilion when quite ripe--except in the Botucat? kind, which remains yellow to the end.
The coffee tree is a most serviceable plant, every part of which can be used. Its wood is much used in cabinet making, and makes excellent fuel; its leaves, properly torrefied, and then stewed in boiling water, give a palatable kind of tea; from the sweet pulp of its fruit an agreeable liqueur can be distilled; from its beans can be made the beverage we all know, and from the shells and residue of the fruit a good fertilizer can be produced.
The chemical examination of the cinders of the coffee bean shows that it contains 65?25 per cent of potash, 12?53 per cent of phosphoric acid, 11?00 per cent of magnesia, 6?12 per cent of lime, and some traces of sulphuric and salicylic acid, oxide of iron and chlorine.
An interesting study has been made by Dr. Dafert of the weight of the various components of the coffee tree at different ages, from which it appears that the proportion of potash increases progressively in the organs as they are more and more distant from the roots. The contrary is the case with lime and phosphoric acid, which preponderate generally in the seeds.
With this knowledge a scientific cultivator can judge exactly how to treat the exigencies of the different trees at different ages. Naturally, the condition of the soil has to be taken into consideration in any case. According to experiments made by Dr. Dafert each kilo of coffee beans has extracted from the soil--potash 0?7880 gramme; phosphoric acid 0?4020 gramme; magnesia 0?3240 gramme; lime 0?1470 gramme.
These experiments apply merely to coffee grown in Brazil, and are no doubt at variance with experiments on coffee grown elsewhere. Taking all things into consideration, it has been proved by chemical analysis that the Brazilian coffee comes as near as any in its components to what the normal or perfect coffee should be.
The coffee trees can stand cold--if not of long duration--down to freezing-point, as well as a fairly high temperature. Unlike the Liberia coffee, they fare better on undulating or broken ground than on the flat.
Two distinct seasons--the dry and the rainy--each of about six months' duration--such as are found in the above-mentioned States of Brazil, seem perfectly to suit the growth of the coffee trees. The trees are in bloom for three or four days some time during the months of September to December. If the rains are not abundant when the trees are in blossom, and during the maturing of the fruits, the latter do not develop properly, especially those at the end of the branches, where the berries become dry before their time or even do not form. If the rain comes too long before the trees are in bloom it causes the blossoms to open before their time and they are frequently spoiled by the cold which follows. The coffee beans are collected in April, during the dry weather.
The coffee trees are very sensitive to winds, cold or hot, especially when blowing continuously in the same direction, which causes the undue fall of leaves and rupture of the bark at the neck of the roots. Wind, indeed, is one of the most dangerous enemies of coffee trees, and it is to obviate this danger that in many countries--but not in Brazil--a protecting plantation in lines of other trees--generally
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