Hunting a home in Brazil

by James McFadden Gaston

In riding through the sun to-day I was more affected by its heat than at any time previously, and though it may look something like adopting the doctrine of “Similia similibus curantur,” I resorted to the use of strong coffee, with decidedly good result. At the new structure of Senor Barros we found excellent coffee prepared for us, and with a sense of depression from my exposure to the hot sun, I drank two cups of the ordinary size in the United States, which relieved me greatly; and, upon going out again, I did not experience so much inconvenience from the heat, though the sun was beaming down its rays with even greater intensity than before. This stimulant evidently lessened the influence of the sun.

The thermometer stands to-night at 80° Fahrenheit, and was doubtless 90° at two o’clock P. M., as it is very sensibly cooler since the sun disappeared, while a pleasant breeze always fans the earth at night.

Some valuable information was received from Dom Queiroz to-day, in regard to the employment by contract, of men having negroes under their control, from the province of Minas. These negroes have been heretofore employed upon coffee estates which have ceased to be profitable in that section, and the owners are sending them to this comparatively new region, under responsible overseers, to contract with the landowners for their labor. They go into the virgin forest, clear it up after the style of the country, and plant young coffee trees furnished by the landowner, which are to be cared for, and the intervening space of land cultivated on their own account during four years; at the end of which time, the field is turned over to the owner, with the coffee trees yielding fruit.

In consideration of this service, the landowner pays to the contractor twenty cents for each coffee tree which is growing and ready to yield; and if any cash is advanced to him prior to the end of the fourth year, he gives guarantees for the fulfilment of his stipulation, and pays twelve per cent. per annum interest upon the money thus received. The contractor supplies himself with tools, and his hands with provisions, or other articles needed, so that the landowner is not responsible in any way for them.

During the first two years, the contractor may plant whatever crop he chooses between the rows of the coffee trees, but the owner has the right to dictate what shall be planted in the subsequent two years; and as the growth of the plants may be impaired by the presence of high corn or other things calculated to shade them, these may be forbidden.

Should the coffee commence yielding before the expiration of the four years, the contractor obligates himself to gather the crop, and turn over one-half of it to the owner of the land.

The advantage to the contractor consists in having the use of land for four years, in consideration of clearing it, and the twenty cents per tree is very full pay for the labor and attention bestowed upon the coffee plants.

On the other hand, the owner, having a large amount of land without sufficient force to do all this heavy work, gets his land put in good order for cultivation, and has the coffee trees upon it bearing fruit. Considering that four hundred and sixteen (416) trees grow upon one acre of ground, his improved land costs him eighty-three dollars ($83) per acre; and the question arises, could not day-laborers have been employed throughout this period for the same outlay of money, who would have given the owner the annual return from the cultivation of the lands, in addition to the final growth of the coffee trees?

I learn that one man can clear and plant in the course of a year ten acres of land, and the same man can of course cultivate it in a crop of provisions during subsequent years. This man can be hired to work, and find himself, certainly at one dollar a day for the working days of the year, which may be put down at three hundred dollars, which for four years will be twelve hundred dollars.

For this amount, I have had my annual provisions from the land, and my coffee trees are now ready to yield me an annual crop. If this sum now is reduced by subtracting the value of the crop for each of the three last years, at the rate of thirty dollars per acre for each year, making nine hundred dollars, it leaves but three hundred dollars of outlay for my coffee trees; or thirty dollars per acre, instead of the eighty-three dollars per acre paid out by the system of contract.