For the management of a fazenda of five thousand head of cattle, it is said six men are sufficient, with one hundred horses at least; the whole of which pasture together in troops of twenty, with a tamed mare, from which they do not usually stray. From the sandy nature of the soil, as in many other parts of Brazil, particularly at Pernambuco, no expense is incurred by the owners for shoeing them. In each establishment, or tract of land, there is commonly a small hill, or the most elevated land is selected, as plain and even at the summit as possible, which is known by the name of _rodeio_, (a certain compass of land,) and is capable of receiving the whole flock, when brought together. For this purpose, the shepherds on horseback distribute themselves round about the cattle, and cry out loudly “_Rodeio, rodeio, rodeio_;” at whose voices the cattle march at full trot towards the rodeio, in files, divided into droves or bands of fifty to one hundred, according to the numbers that pasture together. This mode of forming them early into troops is indispensable, in order to put on the mark of the dono or proprietor upon such as have it not, and with more facility to select those that are upwards of four years old for the market, or for _carne-secco_, or jirked beef. If the stock of cattle exceed the number of heads which the fazenda is capable of sustaining, they of course run short of pasturage, and many spread out into more distant plains, and after a time will no longer obey the rodeio, but fly and disorder the rest of the flock. In a fazenda of three leagues it is computed that one thousand young cattle, male and female, are branded or marked, annually; consequently the number they send off or kill may be estimated in the same ratio. The farmers also breed a certain number of domestic cattle. He who possesses four thousand cattle, which are denominated _bravo_, or wild, keeps commonly one hundred milch cows, which, however, pasture in the same fields or plains with the others. When a cow calves, she always selects a situation adapted to the concealment of her young, where it continues in secrecy for the space of eight days. She visits it at different times in the course of the day, in order to give it suck, lying by it at night. It is difficult to find them during this period; but once discovered the calf is immediately conducted to the cattle fold, where it is kept eight or nine months or more, being daily visited by its dam, which is milked the whole of this time, for the purpose of making butter and cheese, leaving to the prisoner only what it can draw from its mother after she has been milked. The familiarity of the young one with the persons upon the fazenda preserves it in a state of tameness. The males, when sufficiently grown, are used in the cart or plough, and the females pasture in the plains till they become mothers, continuing to supply the farmer with an increasing stock.