Of those estates which I have seen, I think that the average number of negroes sent to daily labour in the field does not reach forty for each; for although there may be upon a plantation this number of males and females of a proper age for working, still some of them will always be sick or employed upon errands, not directly conducive to the advancement of the regular work. An estate which possesses forty able negroes, males and females, an equal number of oxen[165], and the same of horses, can be very well worked; and if the lands are good, that is, if there is a fair proportion of low and high lands fit for the culture of the sugar-cane, such an estate ought to produce a number of chests of sugar of fifteen hundred weight each, equal to that of the able slaves. I speak of forty slaves being sufficient, because some descriptions of work are oftentimes performed by freemen; thus, for instance, the sugar boilers, the person who clays the sugar, the distiller, the cartmen, and even some others are very frequently free. Only a very small proportion of the sugar will be muscavado, if the business is conducted with any degree of management. I have heard it said by many planters that the melasses will pay almost every expence; and that if rum is made, the proceeds of the melasses are rendered fully equal to the usual yearly expenditure.
The negroes may be valued at 32l. each; oxen at 3l. each; and horses at the same; but by management the two last may be obtained at lower prices. A sugar plantation of the first class, with suitable buildings, may be reckoned as being worth from 7000l. to 8000l. and some few are valued as high as 10,000l.; but an advance of one-sixth of the price would probably be accepted, the remainder to be paid by yearly instalments. The inland plantations may be reckoned at from 3000l. to 5000l. and a few are rather higher; but a smaller advance would be required than upon the purchase of prime plantations, and the instalments would be more moderate. Plantations of the first class ought to have eighty negroes at least, and an increased number of animals, owing to their capability of employing more hands.[166]
The only carts which are used upon the plantations are very clumsily made; a flat surface or table (meza) made of thick and heavy timber, of about two feet and a half broad, and six feet in length, is fixed upon two wheels of solid timber, with a moveable axle-tree; a pole is likewise fixed to the cart. These vehicles are always drawn by four oxen or more, and as they are narrow, and the roads upon which they must travel are bad, they are continually overturning. The negroes who drive the carts have generally some indulgencies, with which their fellow-slaves are not favoured, from the greater labour which this business requires, and from the continual difficulty and danger to which they are exposed, owing to the overturning of the carts and the unruliness of the oxen. In the whole management of the concerns of a plantation, the want of mechanical assistance to decrease the labour of the workmen must strike every person who is in the habit of seeing them, and of paying any attention to the subject. I will mention one instance; when bricks or tiles are to be removed from one place to another, the whole gang of negroes belonging to the estate is employed in carrying them; each man takes three or perhaps four bricks or tiles upon his head, and marches off gently and quietly; he lays them down where he is desired so to do, and again returns for three or four more. Thus thirty persons sometimes pass the whole day in doing the same quantity of work that two men with wheel-barrows would have performed with equal ease in the same space of time.
CHAPTER XVII.
AGRICULTURE.—COTTON.
THIS most valuable plant has now become of more importance to Pernambuco even than the sugar-cane, owing to the great demand for the cotton of that province, and of those adjoining to it, in the British markets. New establishments are forming yearly for the cultivation of the cotton plant, notwithstanding the great inconveniences which must often be experienced in accomplishing this object. The districts which are chosen for the purpose, and universally allowed to be the best adapted to its growth, are far removed from the sea coast, arid and oftentimes very scantily supplied with fresh water. Absolute distress is felt from a want of water in some of these situations, at the time that other parts of the country are enjoying perfect ease in this respect. The opinion is very general that the cotton plant will not thrive in the neighbourhood of the coast[167], and that frequent changes of weather are injurrious to it. The dry and wet seasons are doubtless more regularly marked at a distance from the sea, and if any variation is felt in such situations, it is from a want of rain, and not from a superabundance of it. The cotton plant requires that a great portion of the year should be dry; for if much rain falls when the pod is open, the wool is lost; it becomes yellow, decays, and is rendered completely unfit for use. The soil which is preferred for its culture is a deep red earth, with veins of yellow occasionally running through it; this becomes extremely hard, after a long interval without rain. The cotton plantations are yearly receding farther into the interior, where-ever the Sertam plains do not prevent this recession. The plantations of this description which were formerly established nearer to the coast, are now employed in the rearing of other plants. The constant supply of new lands which the cotton plant requires, for it is judged necessary to allow the land to rest for several years before it undergoes cultivation a second time, may in some degree account for this. Perhaps too, the rapid increase of the population upon the coast may have had some effect in forcing back those who plant an article of trade, to give place to others who cultivate the necessary food for the inhabitants of the country. The cotton is often sold by the planter in caroço, that is, before it has been separated from the seed, to other persons whose livelihood is obtained in preparing it for the export market; but as the labour of conveyance is, of course, considerably increased whilst it is in this state, the dealers establish themselves near to the plantations; they recede as the planters recede. Some years ago a number of the machines for separating the cotton from the seed were to be seen within two leagues of Recife; a few years after they were removed to Goiana, and now the principal resorts of the dealers are Limoeiro and Bom Jardim; places, as will have been seen, which are several leagues distant from the coast.
The lands are cleared for planting cotton in the usual manner,—by cutting down the trees and burning them; and the holes for the seeds are dug in quadrangular form at the distance of six feet from each other. Three seeds are usually put into each hole; in the British colonies, it is found necessary to make use of eight or ten seeds. The time for planting is in January, after the primeiras aguas or first waters; or at any rate as soon in the year as any rain has fallen. Maize is usually planted among the cotton shrubs. Three crops and sometimes four are obtained from the same plants; but the second crop is that which generally produces the finest wool. The shrub has a pleasing appearance whilst it is in full leaf, and is covered with its most beautiful yellow blossoms; but when the pods begin to open and the leaves to wither, its thin and straggling branches are left uncovered, and the plant much resembles a large black currant bush, that has been left unpruned for a length of time. The cotton is gathered in nine or ten months. The machine for detaching it from the seed is simple, and might be rendered still more so. Two small rollers are placed horizontally in a frame, and nearly touching each other. At each end of these rollers there are grooves through which a cord runs, which is connected at the distance of a few yards with a large wheel, to which handles are fixed, and this is turned by two persons. The rollers are so formed as to turn in opposite directions, so that as the cotton is thrust against them with the hand, it is carried to the other side, but the seeds remain, for the opening between the rollers is not sufficiently broad to allow them to pass[168]. The machine which is used in the British colonies seems to be of the same construction in the main, but it is still more simple, for the rollers are made to turn by means of the feet of the person who holds the cotton to them[169]. After it has undergone the above process, some particles of seeds which have been accidentally broken still remain, and of other substances which must be removed. For this purpose a heap of cotton is made, and is beaten with large sticks; this is a most injurious operation, by which the fibre is broken; but as the value of the commodity to the manufacturer chiefly depends upon the length of the fibre, no trouble ought to be grudged to avoid this practice.
The seeds adhere “firmly to each other in the pod.” Mr. Edwards speaks of this species in the British colonies, and gives to it the name of kidney cotton, saying that he believes it to be “the true cotton of Brazil[170].” The yellow or nankeen cotton is likewise to be found at Pernambuco; but it does not form an article of cultivation, being regarded rather as a curiosity. I have seen some species of wild cotton, of which however as I have neither note nor specimen, I cannot pretend to give a description.