Senor Vergueiro deserves great credit, however, for the boldness and energy with which he has urged forward his improvements, and others are now profiting by his enterprise in the domain of agriculture and the arts.
He produces all the corn requisite to raise hogs for his consumption, and also for a large number of horses and mules, keeping a pack of the latter to assist in transporting his coffee to market. He cures a considerable amount of hay for the use of his animals in winter, when the grass does not grow so abundantly; and I have heard of no other person in the country who gives any attention to haymaking.
Thus we find this fazendeiro combines all the various interests that conduce to the comfort of his family and the welfare of the large number of colonists and slaves who are dependent upon him for supplies. His extensive fazenda is emphatically a self-sustaining establishment, and he lives within himself to a very large extent. He grows his own beef and mutton, as well as his hogs, and his table is always supplied with the best that is found anywhere in the country.
Of course, there are many things which must come from other parts, and he avails himself of all the importations that may render a household comfortable, or a table desirable. Though hams are not cured here, the finest was found upon his table; and though flour comes from abroad, the choice varieties of flour bread, as well as other kinds, showed the domestic management of the estimable senhora most satisfactorily.
Tuesday, October 10, 1865.
We took our leave this morning of our kind friends at Ybicaba, and with a guide furnished by Senor José Vergueiro, we set out for the fazenda of Senor Rafael Paes de Barros, son of the Baron of Rerecicoba.
Our route lay through a region having a very large growth of timber, and we saw trees of eight feet in diameter, which gives twenty-four feet around the base of the trunk. The soil in this vicinity is of a dark red or purple color, and of a loose loamy consistence. It is the richest land of this country, and produces to great advantage all the crops usually planted here; yet some planters think this rich purple soil, that is known here as “terra rocha,” is not so well adapted to the culture of cotton as the land which has an admixture of sand.
We reached São Antonio, the residence of Senor Barros, about 12 o’clock, and he met us in the front yard with an open expression of hospitality, which made me feel that his words of welcome were not a mere empty sound.
After showing us his cotton house, where he had a large quantity of cotton in the seed, he took us to his recently-constructed gin-house, where the machinery is moved by water-power. He has a thirty-saw gin of American manufacture, and a small screw of his own make, which will meet his present wants; but so soon as his large force is employed in growing cotton, the appliances for preparing it for market must be greatly increased.
His experiment in the culture of cotton has been entirely satisfactory, and he considers the crop of great importance with the present high price in Rio.