Industrial and commercial South America

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.