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226 BRAZIL and it would be impossible to estimate the number of kinds in the several rivers of the empire. The garoupa is a large fish, of excel- lent flavor, taken in prodigious numbers off the coast between lat. 17 and 18 S. An immense variety of fish is caught in the vicinity of the Abrolhos, and used for food, comprising some of the most delicious kinds of marine fish. The peixeboi, or cow fish, called by the Indians ju- rud, is an herbivorous cetacean, of which there are probably two species in the Amazon, con- sidered as distinct from the manatee of the West Indies. In the Sao Francisco there is a fish called the piranha, exceedingly voracious, biting the legs of bathers, and attacking and muti- lating other fish irrespective of size. The piru- rucfl is taken in large quantities in the Ama- zon, and is preserved like cod. The Amazo- nian forests are without a rival for the great size and gorgeous colors of their butterflies, and the endless variety of the species. The helico- nii, a group of butterflies peculiar to tropical America, are very numerous ; and the harlequin beetle, with the gigantic prioni and dyiuutes, are also found here. Musical crickets; immense spiders, of sufficient size (some being half a foot in expanse) and strength to attack and kill finches ; countless varieties of bees, some without stings, others making sour honey ; sau- bas, or leaf-carrying ants, so abundant in some districts as to render agriculture almost impos- sible ; formidable mosquitoes, sand flies, rnotu- cas, piums (a minute fly, the insect pest of the Upper Amazon), carnivorous beetles, huge scor- pions, and myriads of other species, form the characteristic features of the Brazilian insect world. There exist in Brazil magnificent pas- ture lands eminently suitable for cattle rais- ing, and watered by great rivers affording an easy and direct highway to all the mar- kets of the country and of the world. The meadow lands of the more southerly provinces, however, support countless herds of horned cattle, which form an important source of wealth to the country. The cultivated ground from the Bio' Negro to the Andes does not ex- ceed a few score acres. In the valley of the Tocantins the inhabitants like better to gather nuts and cacao, and make India rubber, than to apply themselves to the regular cultivation of the soil. That part of the coast region extending from Bahia to Sta. Catharina, with the exception of Espirito Santo, is generally devoted to coffee culture, though rice te an important product of Rio de Janeiro and the adjoining provinces, and there are immense sugar fazendas in all of them. The region em- bracing Rio Grande do Sul, Parana, and Sta. Catharina yields the various cereals, cattle raising being likewise an important industry ; and the great equatorial districts are charac- terized by the spontaneous products of the forest barks, gums, resins, and textile sub- stances as yet unknown in foreign markets india rubber, sarsaparilla, cacao, vanilla, &c. Rice is easily raised in all parts of Brazil ; cot- ton yields large crops in almost all the prov- inces, as do also sugar and tobacco. Agri- cultural operations are chiefly centred upon coft'ee, cotton, sugar, tobacco, mandioca, the various European cereals, beans, and cacao, of which last there are extensive plantations in the provinces N. of Rio de Janeiro. The yield of sugar is still considerable, and has not materially increased or decreased since 1802, notwithstanding the preference given of late years to coffee planting in many districts. Four fifths of the coffee consumed in the United States, and over half of all that is used in the world, is of Brazilian growth. Yet Brazilian coffee is much underrated, for the reason that the finer qualities are nearly always put into market under the name of Java or Mocha, or even Martinique or Bourbon, al- though the yearly produce of coffee in the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe would not be sufficient to supply the Rio do Janeiro market for a single day. Each tree is sup- posed to yield annually, on an average, two pounds of coffee ; but some give as much as eight. Besides the provinces adjacent to Rio de Janeiro, the coffee plant flourishes in the shade of the Amazon forest, and with moderate care yields two annual crops ; and the Ceara coffee, much esteemed, grows on the moun- tain slopes, at an elevation of from 2,000 to 3,000 ft. above the sea. In the province of Para the coffee plant is seen growing on al- most every roadside, thicket, or waste. In 1818 all the coffee exported from Brazil was only 74,300 sacks; in 1871 it was 2,358,001 sacks. The value of cotton exported increased from $8,383,705 in 1862 to $24,030,325 in 1866. This rapid increase was due to the civil war in the United States. Mandioca or cassava is extensively cultivated ; it is said that one acre of it affords as much nutriment as six of wheat, and the farina prepared from it is a common article of food in all parts of the em- pire. The vine and the olive are cultivated to a limited extent in the southern provinces. Manufactures are not yet' in a very advanced condition in Brazil. Sugar refining is carried on extensively, particularly in the great cane- growing provinces of Bahia and Pernambu- co, where there are numbers of mgenhos es- tablished on a grand scale, with the best mod- ern machinery for water or steam power. In the interior the old imperfect systems are still adhered to, owing in many cases to the apathy of the planters, but chiefly to the ex- pense and difficulties attending transportation from the coast. Little has as yet been done in Brazil toward manufacturing this class of ma- chinery. To the engenJios in the interior are commonly attached distilleries, and three kinds of rum are manufactured : cachnfa, somewhat resembling in taste the rum of the West Indies, but inferior to that in quality, is in universal use among the lower classes, and is made from the molasses that drips from the mascavado or common raw sugar; agoardente, or the rum