By the year 1870 Brazil was exporting three million sacks annually (of sixty kilos, or about one hundred and thirty pounds, each); before the end of the century the output was ten million sacks, but meanwhile Brazil passed through a severe labour crisis. Abolition of slavery in 1888 left the plantations without an adequate supply of workers: it was necessary to supplement the free negro element remaining at work with more “braços”—the eternal need of Brazil. Experiments had already been made in colonization by Dom Pedro, and these proved the excellence of the Italian labourer; prompt measures were taken by the State as well as by private _fazendeiros_ to bring agricultural workers from North Italy, the breach was filled, and so successfully that today out of a population of three million people in S. Paulo State, one million are Italians. Disputes occurred in early years owing to the disparity of race, and partly the lack of experience of the planter in dealing with white labour, but the State Government took up the cudgels on the part of the immigrant, saw to it that he was paid justly and that his condition was economically sound—to the great advantage of coffee cultivation in Brazil. This was the work of the _Patronato Agricola_, a Brazilian invention which owes much to Dr. Sampaio Vidal; its successful operation was instrumental in contenting the immigrant who came to work on coffee plantations, and while it was at first regarded with suspicion by some _fazendeiros_, eventually received their cordial co-operation as a source of mutual benefit. Not only São Paulo but the coffee-growing regions of interior Rio, Minas, and Espirito Santo, sought immigrants officially: in spite of efforts there was no section of Brazil so successful as the southern State. _Colonos_ who were brought to Minas melted away to São Paulo, perhaps chiefly on account of the “sympathy of numbers.” São Paulo eventually remained the only State with an organized, active immigration system. At the end of the nineteenth century big prices were paid for coffee: on a few occasions a sack fetched one hundred and thirty-five francs, and large quantities were sold at ninety-five and ninety-seven francs. Cost of production was about fifty francs, and sixty-six was considered a fair return on investment; the industry was greatly stimulated by these profits and planting began feverishly all along the lines of deposit of the richest red soils. These new plantations came into bearing four or five years later, and in the crop season of 1906–07 a staggering yield was ready for an overwhelmed market. The bounty of nature brought Brazil face to face with ruin.