Brazil and Her People of To-day: An Account of the Customs, Characteristics, Amusements, History and Advancement of the Brazilians, and the Development and Resources of Their CountryWinter, Nevin O. (Nevin Otto)
History
Brazil and Her People of To-day: An Account of the Customs, Characteristics, Amusements, History and Advancement of the Brazilians, and the Development and Resources of Their Country
Winter, Nevin O. (Nevin Otto)
Brazil
From Campinas the journey was continued over the Mogyana Railroad, a
narrow gauge track. The line passes through coffee plantations for some
distance, and then into uncultivated lands, where the only industry
is the raising of stock. A part of the land traversed is abandoned
agricultural land, and part of it has never been under cultivation. The
cattle seen on these farms are only of fair quality, for not much care
has been taken in breeding the animals up to a high standard. With many
bends and graceful curves the road follows a stream, cuts across valleys
and around hills. There is no part of the ten hours’ journey when hills
of fair size are not a prominent feature in the foreground. A number
of towns are passed, and a few very narrow gauged railroads run off
to plantations, which cannot be seen from the railroads. The soil is
almost the colour of dried blood, and this red dirt filters in through
the windows in great clouds. This blood-red dust colours everything it
touches with a reddish hue. The clothing is soon tinted with it, and even
the children’s complexions show the effects, for Brazilian children, like
their cousins all over the world, like to play in the dirt. But this red
soil is good coffee land, and coffee plantations are seen crowning the
summits of the hills. At last the train reaches Riberão Preto, near which
are situated the best and largest coffee plantations, not only in Brazil
but in the world. The town is comparatively modern, for this district
is newer than Campinas, and it has been growing in importance year after
year in the past two decades. It is now a city of ten or fifteen thousand
people.
[Illustration: “MONTE ALEGRE” FAZENDA.]
At the station were waiting carriages from the hospitable “Monte Alegre”
_fazenda_, the residence of Colonel Francisco Schmidt, who is known as
the “coffee king.” This man came to Brazil as a poor emigrant boy a half
century ago, and hoed coffee trees for other _fazenderos_, and on lands
which he now owns. Seated on the broad veranda of “Monte Alegre,” one
could see avenues of coffee trees stretching out over the hills, and
good coffee lands are always hilly, until they were lost in the horizon.
Although it was not possible to see, yet one knew that they continued in
the same unbroken rows down the other slope. I rode in a carriage with
the Colonel for hours through a continuous succession of coffee trees,
during the three days that I was his guest, with no end in sight. When
you consider that there are from two hundred and fifty to three hundred
trees to each acre, you will readily realize that the number of trees
soon runs into the thousands, then into the tens of thousands, and
finally into the millions. So do not be surprised when I tell you that
this coffee king has already growing upon his various _fazendas_ the
almost incredible number of eight million coffee trees. I did not see all
of them, but I saw so many that numbers lost their meaning, and I could
only think in millions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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