The harvest usually begins in April or May, and extends well into the dry season. Even in the picking season, heavy rains and strong winds—especially the latter—may do considerable damage; for in Brazil shade trees and wind-breaks are the exception.
Approximately twenty-five percent of the São Paulo plantations are cultivated by machinery. A type of cultivator very common is similar to the small corn-plow used in the United States. The Planet Junior, manufactured by a well known United States agricultural-machinery firm, is the most popular cultivator. It is drawn by a small mule, with a boy to lead it, and a man to drive and to guide the plow.
Picking Coffee in São Paulo
Copyright by Brown & Dawson.
The preponderance of the coffee over other industries in São Paulo is shown in many ways. A few years ago the registration of laborers in all industries was about 450,000; and of this total, 420,000 were employed in the production and transportation of coffee alone. Of the capital invested in all industries, about eighty-five percent was in coffee production and commerce, including the railroads that depended upon it directly. An estimated value of $482,500,000 was placed upon the plantations in the state, including land, machinery, the residences of owners, and laborers' quarters.
In all Brazil, there are approximately 1,200,000,000 coffee trees. The number of bearing coffee trees in São Paulo alone increased from 735,000,000 in 1914–15 to 834,000,000 in 1917–18. The crop in 1917–18 was 1,615,000,000 pounds, one of the largest on record. In the agricultural year of 1922–23 there were 764,969,500 coffee trees in bearing in São Paulo, and in São Paulo, Minãs, and Parana, 824,194,500.
Intensive Cultivation Methods in the Ribeirao Preto District, São Paulo
Photograph by Courtesy of J. Aron & Co.