BRAZIL: RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES
Brazilian industries as we have already seen have the variety befitting
a country of its enormous area. The States of Minas, Pernambuco, and
São Paulo can produce almost anything, but even these have specialties.
Of the various products of Brazil, as in the other South American
countries except Bolivia, the vegetable are the most important,
with coffee far in the lead. Stock raising comes next; minerals of
prodigious variety and richness are third. Manufactures, developing
later, may in time largely satisfy the requirements of the inhabitants.
AGRICULTURE
=Coffee=, we all know, is in value the most important crop of the
country, growing over vast areas, chiefly in what we may call the
northern part of South Brazil, the States on or near the edge of the
tropics, São Paulo, Rio, Minas, and Espirito Santo. North and south
of these States coffee grows and flourishes more or less according to
local conditions. There are said to be 1,400,000,000 coffee trees in
Brazil, which produce perhaps three-fourths of the world supply, more
than half of them in the State of São Paulo. The State contains about
60,000 plantations. Probably more than 1¹⁄₂ billions are invested in
the industry, $900,000,000 in São Paulo. The larger part of the crop
moves over the wonderful railway between São Paulo and Santos and
goes out from that port, some from adjoining States as well as from
São Paulo. For ten years the average value of the coffee exported was
$120,000,000.
Great fortunes were made by some who embarked many years ago in the
business; the coffee king, Colonel Schmidt, who has 8,000,000 trees and
produces 11,000 or 12,000 tons of coffee yearly, was himself a poor
immigrant. But the best lands were taken up long since; production is
increasing in other countries, as well as consumption, and there is not
now the opportunity of earlier days. São Paulo especially has the rich
red soil that the plant loves, the sloping ground, the right climate,
and the water supply, over a greater extent of accessible territory,
probably, than any other land in the world; though districts in other
countries produce coffee of equal excellence. Here of course there
are different varieties and grades, the original plants having been
imported from Arabia and Java and preserving their characteristics.
Life on the _faezendas_, as the farms are called, is agreeable both for
the rich proprietor and for the Italian and other laborer, who has his
own garden and whose wife and children help in the picking season. The
rows of trees extend for miles in even lines; there are great cement
drying grounds in the sun, pulping machinery, and store-houses. The
business generally is in the hands of Brazilians, though there are
foreign stock companies, paying large dividends. Coffee is about 40 per
cent of the Brazil exports and 97 per cent of São Paulo’s.
=Cacao.= Other agricultural industries are of importance and capable
of infinite expansion. Cacao is a product the consumption of which
is rapidly increasing. Bahia stands second in production, a crop of
40,000 tons being exported from the city in 1917. Cacao forms 60 per
cent of the State’s export. Large areas of suitable land are said to
be available for plantations in States south of the Amazon, including
North São Paulo and Matto Grosso. That grown in Maranhão ranks as the
best. The groves run inland along the river valleys, full of rich red
soil. There are two gathering seasons, one from September to April, the
next crop beginning in May, less important. It is said that one person
can take care of 1000 trees, which yield from 5 to 13, sometimes 20
pounds annually. A plantation at pre-war prices cost 80-85 cents
a tree. Three hundred are planted to an acre. The investment of a
moderate sum is pretty sure to give good returns after three or four
years.
=Sugar= plantations are increasing and sugar is exported in
considerable quantities. This was one of Brazil’s earliest industries,
but languished on the discovery of gold in the 17th century, to be
followed by several revivals. The amount exported varies, in 1909 it
was 70,000 tons, in 1916, 54,000. It is cultivated near the coast and
inland, chiefly from Rio Grande do Norte south to São Paulo, though
it is also raised down to Rio Grande do Sul, where the 1916 crop was
worth $3,000,000. In one year 441,000 tons were produced, 109,000
exported. The yield in some States farther north is 20 tons to the
acre. In general little fertilizing is done and crop rotation is not
followed, so that lands have become degenerate after centuries. The
most flourishing seats of the industry are in Rio, and in Pernambuco,
1000 miles north. In Rio, Campos is the focus. The State has 31 large
sugar mills, Pernambuco has 46. São Paulo is third, other States have
fewer, but small mills are scattered everywhere making brown sugar and
_cachaca_, native rum. In the large mills the best machinery is used,
and it is said that 300,000 tons is the total output. The export is to
Uruguay, Argentina, Great Britain, United States, and Portugal. Almost
every cotton, coffee, or other _faezenda_ grows its own sugar. Eighty
or ninety pounds a head are used. Cane ripens in the northern States in
about 15 months; south of Rio in 18-20 months.
=Tobacco= was in use in Brazil in prehistoric days. The State of Bahia
is the centre of the largest production, though it is raised in almost
every State. The quality varies in different localities, but in some
it is said to be equal to the best Havana, especially in Bahia, where
the soil is similar. Forty-five thousand tons were exported in 1902,
chiefly to Germany; in 1916, 2100 tons, valued at over $7,000,000. A
plantation of 37 acres earns $10,000 a year.
=The Coconut= is another product, which might be more important.
It is found near the coast from Parahyba to Bahia, 1,250,000 trees
bearing 50,000,000 nuts, the size of which compares well with others.
One hundred million trees are also reported. At present there is
practically no export, but large possibilities exist for an important
industry. There are three shipping ports, Cabedello, Maceió, and
Recife, three-fourths of the trees near the first two. On the
plantation the nuts sell for $25-$35 per 1000, according to size,
and in cities at $42.50. No attempt is made to produce copra, as the
natives are fond of the milk and fruit. With New York price $160 a ton
for copra and $10 freight it is better to sell the nuts at home, but if
business were done on a large scale, good profit would result. Improper
spacing injures production; of two groves, one 75 trees to the acre and
one close by, 130 trees, the yield of the first is four times that of
the second. Labor is cheap, disease and pests unknown. The by-products
are valuable; fibre for cord or rope, the husk for fuel, the milk for
breakfast, and palm leaves for building or for hats. To develop 2000
acres of land a capital of $30,000 is estimated as necessary, giving
a net return for the first seven years which would average $31,865 a
year, 105 per cent on the capital, with gross receipts for the last
year of $300,000. If the profits are half the estimate the investment
would seem a good one.
=Other Nuts.= The Brazil nut is an equally well known edible, mostly
exported from Pará; in 1914 over $2,000,000 worth. The trees are large,
often 150 feet high. _Babassú_ nuts are exported, some thousands of
tons, chiefly from Bahia, yielding a high percentage of oil, similar
to that from the coconut. Also the _souari_ or butternut brings a good
price and has commercial possibilities, having a larger percentage of
fat than other known species. Its cultivation is believed to be more
profitable than that of coconuts. Tagua nuts are exported in small
quantities.
=Cotton= is an important product likely to have a large increase,
though a diminishing amount is exported, $8,000,000 worth in 1914 and
$500,000 in 1916. This does not indicate lessening production but
large increase in cotton milling. Cotton of long silky staple of high
merit here grows wild or with careless cultivation. Growing in almost
all parts of the country, it is best on the northeast promontory
and along the coast to the Amazon. There is little culture, not yet
¹⁄₂ million bales, where 20 might be produced. United States cotton
buyers in 1916 were astonished to find here the long silky fibre. One
of the best varieties is similar to the Peruvian, a hardy, prolific
perennial growing 13 feet high and yielding for at least three years.
One tree was bearing after 16 years. Maranhão has raised this kind for
centuries. It has the high percentage of 38 to the boll and is similar
to that cultivated by the Incas. Under the names Moco, Serido, and
Sede de Ceará, this cotton is grown in these north States. _Gossipium
microcarpum_, related to _peruvianum_, is said to produce a pound of
clean cotton from 120 bolls. These varieties have fuzz on the seeds,
but four other varieties have clean seeds, the most important, the
_Gossipium vitifolium_ found wild in Brazil, still producing long silky
staple. Sea Island and the best Egyptian belong to this stock. These
varieties can be cultivated here without fear of rival anywhere, and
offer a fine field for the investor. In the State of Pernambuco cotton
production is more important than sugar. Much is produced in São Paulo.
Export growers, and good roads or railways are needed to stimulate
production.
=Cereals= are obviously of far less importance in Brazil than in
Argentina, yet many tons are produced and the possibilities are large.
Rio Grande do Sul alone produces wheat in quantity, though not enough
for her own needs; Santa Catharina, São Paulo, the hills of Rio and
Minas are suitable for cereals, and wheat, barley, oats, and a little
rye are seen in the south near European colonies. The chief cereal
grown is maize; in patches it is found everywhere, and in enormous
fields in the centre of Brazil. With _mandioca_ it is the food of the
common people, in spite of the large consumption of flour in the cities.
=Fruits.= The fine fruits of Brazil deserve greater exploitation. I
have eaten really delicious pineapples in Rio only. There may be as
good elsewhere, there cannot be better. The oranges of Bahia have an
equal reputation. It is from that State that the navels were introduced
into Florida. If superior to the California fruit as were the old
Floridas, it is time they were more extensively cultivated and exported
to the United States.
Rice is growing in importance. Formerly imported, its production has
increased until now there is an export balance.
Beans are raised and consumed in great quantities; recently some have
been exported.
FORESTRY
It is well known that the forest country of Brazil has an enormous
area. The entire rubber region is estimated by a Brazilian authority
as covering 1,000,000 square miles, half of which is in Brazil. Other
forest regions of a different character are on the highlands and at the
south, all together covering 1¹⁄₂ million square miles. The forests
contain the varieties that might naturally be expected with others
peculiar to the country, medicinal plants, trees with gums and resins,
woods hard and soft, but mainly hard; some ornamental, others useful as
timber; plants supplying tannin, quebracho and others; the beautiful
Araucanian (Paraná) pine, the candelabra tree, of which there are
800,000,000 in Paraná. The wood is said to be 20 per cent stronger than
the pine of Sweden; the trees are nearly 200 feet high, with a diameter
at the base of ten feet. Other figures are 100 feet tall and three feet
in diameter.
The timber industry is of slight development, but Paraná and Santa
Catharina afford much good building material. The Brazil Company
has in the two States over 500,000 acres with 5,000,000,000 feet of
good standing timber and three mills. One of these, at Tres Barros,
located on a railway, has a capacity of 40,000,000 feet a year, with
planing mill, box factory, etc. There is a great market in Brazil and
Argentina. Among unusually valuable trees is the _peroba_, with a trunk
weighing 30 tons, worth $7 a ton on the spot. The _imbuya_ tree which
resembles mahogany is heavier than water. An infinite variety is found
with infinite uses.
=Rubber= still has some importance, in spite of the great diminution
of export owing to the development of the Ceylon plantations. Once the
price was $3 a pound; in June, 1921, 15¹⁄₂ cents. Unfortunately the
industry in past years was very badly conducted, with short-sighted
policy, wasteful methods in tapping trees, foolish importation at
excessive cost of all kinds of supplies including food, far too
high prices to the laborers; partly in consequence of extortion and
cruelty, a scarcity of labor; in addition, high export duties. The
idea prevailed that people could get rubber nowhere else and must pay
whatever price was asked. It was a severe shock when Ceylon rubber came
more and more into the market, and was found to be a formidable rival.
Although not generally considered equal to _Pará fina_, the Ceylon
answers for most purposes.
The Government is now lending aid to the industry, encouraging
plantations, and better methods otherwise. The export tax at Pará
has been slightly lowered but is now 24¹⁄₂ per cent. A Government
investigation, however, in 1912-14 at a cost of $47,000,000 did little
besides paying fat salaries to favored individuals. The Ceylon export
has recently been 300,000 tons to Brazil’s 37,000. So far synthetic
rubber with the special therapeutic base has cost four times the
_hevea_. The _Pará fina_ is of course the _hevea brasiliensis_, which
constitutes the larger part exported from the Amazon, 80 per cent
of a good workman’s product. _Sernamby_ is a by-product of scraps or
careless work, though even the better is liable to be contaminated more
or less with leaves, nails, etc. _Caucho_ from the _castilloa elastica_
is not so good, and in procuring it the tree is usually destroyed, as
previously stated. Near the mouth of the Amazon where some collectors
are quite independent, owning their own homes on the edge of the
forest, are white rubber trees producing _fraca_ or weak rubber; not
so good as the _hevea_ which has the most resilience, and is tough and
elastic. For many purposes these qualities are essential, hence the
higher price. Red rubber coagulates badly.
Men from the State of Ceará, especially in times of drought, have been
glad to go to the Amazon as rubber collectors; and half wild Indians
of Peru and Bolivia have been employed. The rubber is collected in the
dry season, June to November. Dr. Oswaldo Cruz, a famous Brazilian
physician, said of some of the Amazon regions that there were no
natives, as all the children die; others declare that the normal
condition of older persons is to be afflicted with malaria, beriberi,
dysentery, pneumonia. Still others maintain that much of the higher
land is fairly healthful for persons of careful habits who have good
food. Conditions are improving. American and other companies are
organizing on a more scientific basis than formerly, and with humane
plans which in the long run will prove profitable. Lands have been
secured in desirable locations where men can live all the year, raise
their own vegetables, and not be dependent for their entire living,
aside from fish, on canned stuff at enormous prices. To put Amazon
rubber on a better basis it is necessary that the output be cleaner,
the expenses of the collector smaller, and his living better through
local cultivation of fruit and vegetables, which here grow luxuriantly,
and with better habitations on suitable sites, so attracting a better
labor supply. A further reduction by the Brazilian States of the rubber
export tax, now about 24 per cent in Pará, seems also desirable.
Besides the _hevea_ and _caucho_, two other varieties of rubber are
exported, the _maniçoba_ and the _mangabeira_, which have a place, like
the balatá of the Guianas and Venezuela and the Guayule shrub from
Mexico. The first is from the _manihot_ tree which grows up to 4000
feet altitude, on a rocky soil where there is not too much rain; it
is good for many purposes. The _mangabeira_, mostly from Pernambuco,
grows on a sandy soil at 3000-5000 feet, but is a wet rubber not highly
valued.
The Ceylon rubber trees, the seeds of which were taken from the Amazon
and germinated in Kew Gardens, first blossomed in 1881. The seeds were
used to plant more trees. In 1900 four tons of rubber came from the
East, in 1910, 800 tons; the output in 1916 was about 150,000 tons.
One million, three hundred thousand acres are now producing in Ceylon,
India, Borneo, and elsewhere, a monument to British enterprise.
=Herva Matte.= A very important export, rather forestal than
agricultural is called in Portuguese _herva matte_, the _yerba mate_ of
Spanish. Paraná is its special home where it grows wild in the forests,
straying over into the neighboring States of Matto Grosso, São Paulo,
Santa Catharina, and Rio Grande do Sul, and being native as we have
seen to Paraguay, and to Misiones in Argentina. The trees or shrubs
often grow in sections with the tall Paraná pines, the tree with the
candelabra top, which is not only an ornament to the landscape but
supplies good lumber, and pine kernels as large as chestnuts. These
when boiled make a nutritious food, much relished by the Italians.
The chief export of _matte_ is through the city of Paranaguá, after
preparation in the mills of the region. In 1915, 75,800 tons were
exported, largely to Argentina, some also to Europe; 40,000 tons is an
average amount. It is much used by the residents of Paraná, but in most
of Brazil coffee has the preference.
=Fibres.= Besides cotton Brazil produces fibres of excellence from a
variety of plants. A wonderful article but little known to the general
public is the remarkable _paina_, called in Europe _kapok_, 34 times
as light as water, 14 times, as cork. Chiefly produced in the Orient,
it is obviously excellent for life preservers, also for mattresses,
pillows, and for whatever needs to be light, warm, elastic, and
impermeable. The best fibre, best packed, comes from Java, inferior
grades from India and Africa. Introduced into Venezuela, it was so
packed with stones and refuse that it was rejected when sent to Europe,
although the article was of fine quality. Careless exporters of all
articles should take warning. Other good fibres of Brazil are _aramin_,
from which coffee bags are made; _pita_, from which the Amazon Indians
make hammocks woven with much art, and sometimes with feathers
interspersed along the edge. Palms and aloes supply other fibres, some
equal, they say, to the famous _henequen_ (_sisal_) of Yucatan. Banana
fibre is used by north lace makers for a curious stiff shiny lace, some
quite beautiful, fine and intricate, and some with a darned-in pattern
of heavier silk thread, on a filmy background.
=Carnaüba Wax=, which forms an under coating of the leaves of the
_carnaüba_ palm, is not unlike beeswax. Nearly 600 tons were exported
in 1915 valued at $2,400,000. The trees grow in the north States,
especially in Rio Grande do Norte, where there are 15,000,000 trees,
and in Ceará. Large amounts of the product are used locally. The wax
is of excellent quality, melting at a low temperature and burning with
a bright light. Mixed with a little beeswax and 10 per cent fat, it is
easily worked and makes candles of high quality. It is much used for
shoe blacking.