In my walks round the city, I had frequent opportunities of examining the singular succession of horizontal strata, that form the eminence on which it stands. They lie in the following order: first, one of red vegetable earth of variable depth, impregnated with oxide of iron; below that, sand and adventitious matter of different shades of color, as ochre-red, brown, and dusky yellow, together with many rounded pebbles, which indicate it to be of rather recent formation; it varies in depth from three to six feet, or perhaps to seven, and its lower part is uniformly yellow: under this is a bed of exceedingly fine clay of various colors, but for the most part purple; the white and yellow is the purest in quality; it is interveined with thin layers of sand in various directions. Then succeeds a stratum of alluvial matter, which is highly ferruginous; it rests on a variety of decomposed granite, containing hornblende, the proportion of feldspar apparently exceeding that of the other constituents[16]. The whole is incumbent on fine grained granite. The sides of the mount are steep, and in some places nearly perpendicular[17].
The fertility of the country around S. Paulo may be inferred from the quantities of produce, with which, as I have stated, its market is supplied. About a century ago, this tract abounded with gold; and it was not until they had exhausted it by washing, that the inhabitants thought of employing themselves in husbandry. As they did so more from necessity than from choice, they were tardy in pursuing those improvements which other nations have made in this noble art, and, pining at the disappearance of the precious mineral, considered their new occupation as vile and degrading. Indeed throughout the whole of Brazil, the husbandmen have ever been considered as forming a class greatly inferior in point of respectability to the miners; and this prejudice will in all likelihood subsist until the country shall have been drained of its gold and diamonds, when the people will be compelled to seek in agriculture a constant and inexhaustible source of wealth.
I shall attempt to describe the system of farming which at present prevails in the neighbourhood of S. Paulo. It has been elsewhere observed that, in this extensive empire, land is granted in large tracts, on proper application; and we may naturally suppose that the value of these tracts depends more or less on their situation. It therefore becomes the first object of a cultivator, to look out for unoccupied lands as near as possible to a large town; good roads and navigable rivers are the desiderata next in point of consequence which he attends to. When he has made choice of a situation, he applies to the governor of the district, who orders the proper officers to mark out the extent required, generally a league or a league and a half square, sometimes more. The cultivator then purchases as many negroes as he can, and commences his operations by erecting habitations for them and himself, which are generally miserable sheds, supported by four posts, and commonly called ranchos. His negroes are then directed to cut down the trees and brushwood growing on the land, to such an extent as he thinks they will be able to manage. This done, they set fire to all they have cut, as it lies on the ground. Much of the success of his harvest depends on this burning; if the whole be reduced to ashes he expects a great crop; if, through wet weather, the felled trees remain only half burnt, he prognosticates a bad one. When the ground is cleared, the negroes dibble it with their hoes, and sow their maize, beans, or other pulse; during the operation they cut down any thing very much in the way, but never think of working the soil. After sowing as much seed as is thought requisite, they prepare other ground for planting cassada, here called mandioca, the root of which is generally eaten as bread by all ranks in Brazil. The soil[18] for this purpose is rather better prepared; it is raked up in little round hillocks, not unlike mole-hills, about four feet asunder; into which are stuck cuttings from branches of the plant, about an inch thick and six or eight long; these soon take root, and put forth leaves, shoots, and buds. When enough has been planted for the entire consumption of the farm, the owner, if he is rich enough, prepares means for growing and manufacturing sugar. He first employs a carpenter to cut wood, and build a mill with wooden rollers for crushing the canes, by means of water, if a stream is at hand, if not, by the help of mules or oxen. While some of the negroes are assisting the carpenter, others are employed in preparing ground in the same way as for mandioca. Pieces of cane containing three or four joints, and in length about six inches, cut from the growing stem, are laid in the earth nearly horizontally, and covered with soil to the depth of about four inches. They shoot up rapidly, and in three months have a bushy appearance not unlike flags; in twelve or fifteen months more they are ready for cutting. In rich virgin soil it is not uncommon to see canes twelve feet high and astonishingly thick.
The Indian corn and pulse are in general ripe in four months or eighteen weeks. The average return is two hundred for one; it is a bad harvest when it falls short of one hundred and fifty.
The mandioca is rarely ready to take up in less than eighteen or twenty months; if the land be suitable, it then produces from six to twelve pounds weight per plant[19]. They grow very little indigo in this neighbourhood, and what they have is of indifferent quality. Their pumpkins are of enormous size, and small ones are sometimes served up as table-vegetables, but more frequently given as food to the horses. Melons here are scarcely palatable.
In no branch of husbandry are the farmers so defective as in the management of cattle. No artificial grasses are cultivated, no enclosures are made, nor is any fodder laid up against the season of scarcity. The cows are never milked regularly; they seem to be considered rather as an incumbrance to a farm than a valuable part of the stock. They constantly require salt, which is given them once in fifteen or twenty days, in small proportions. The dairies, if such they may be called, are managed in so slovenly a manner, that the little butter which is made becomes rancid in a few days, and the cheese is good for nothing. In this essential department the Paulistas are deplorably deficient; rarely indeed is there to be seen a farm with one convenience belonging to it. For want of proper places in which to store their produce, they are obliged to lay it in promiscuous heaps; and it is not uncommon to see coffee, cotton, maize, and beans, thrown into the corners of a damp shed, and covered with a green hide. One half is invariably spoiled by mould and putridity, and the remainder is much deteriorated, through this idle and stupid negligence.
They feed their pigs on Indian corn in a crude state; the time for confining them to fatten is at eight or ten months old; and the quantity consumed for the purpose is eight or ten Winchester bushels each. When killed, the lean is cut off the sides as clean as possible, the fat is cured with very little salt, and in a few days is ready for market. The ribs, chine-bone, and lean parts are dried for home consumption.
The farm-houses are miserable hovels of one story, the floor neither paved nor boarded, and the walls and partitions formed of wicker-work, plastered with mud, and never under-drawn. For an idea of the kitchen, which ought to be the cleanest and most comfortable part of the dwelling, the reader may figure to himself a filthy room, with an uneven muddy floor, interspersed with pools of slop-water, and in different parts fire-places formed by three round stones to hold the earthen pots that are used for boiling meat; as green wood is the chief fuel, the place is almost always filled with smoke, which, finding no chimney, vents itself through the doors and other apertures, and leaves all within as black as soot. I regret to say that the kitchens of many opulent people are not in much better condition.
It may well be imagined that, in a country like this, a stranger finds the greatest comfort and enjoyment out of doors. The gardens in S. Paulo, and its vicinity, are laid out with great taste, and many of them with curious elegance. The jasmine is every where a favorite tree, and in this fine climate bears flowers perennially, as does the rose. Carnations, pinks, passion-flowers, cockscombs, &c. grow in great plenty; one of their most estimable shrubs is the Palma Christi, which gives fruit the first year, and yields abundance of castor-oil, which all families possess in such quantity, that no other sort is burnt.