PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

Although nearly the whole of Brazil lies within the tropics and a part of it across the equator, which is on a line with the mouth of the Amazon, the climate in most parts, away from the seashore and its lowlands, is rather remarkable for its salubrity. This arises from phys ical features which give elevation above sea level and secure for about two-thirds of the country, or at least more than half of it, ample drainage. Count Amelot de Chaillou, minister of France to Brazil, whose report upon the agriculture of the country to the French ministry of agriculture, published in 1889, is confirmed in various of its features by the writings of Agassiz, ex-Consul-General Andrews, Consul-General Dockery, and several consuls of the United States in Brazil, gives in considerable detail the leading physical features of that country, and the principal part of his description is herein transcribed for a better understanding, with map consultation, of the basis and possible extent of Brazilian agriculture, which, with that of the Argentine Republic, has very important relations to that of our own country:

The largest portion of Brazil is a plateau, from 300 to 1,000 meters* in altitude, which is bounded on the north and west by the great depressions of the Amazon and the Paraguay, which are nearly united by the valleys of the Madeira (one of the largest affluents of the Amazon) and its tributary, the Guaporé. The country also includes a part of the plateau of Guiana, nearly half of the basins of the Amazon and the upper Paraguay. To these four large divisions the maritime region, occupying a narrow strip lying between the Atlantic and the eastern border of the great Brazilian plateau, must be added.

This plateau consists of a series of heights which sharply intersect the valleys of the many rivers. It is subdivided into four secondary plateaux, which occupy the basins of four rivers, viz, the Paraná, the Amazon, the São Francisco, and the Parnahyba.

The plateau of the basin of the Paraná comprises the largest part of the provinces of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catharina, São Paulo, and parts of Minas Geraes and Goyas. The high portions of Matto Grosso lie between the Paraguay and the Paraná. The maximum height of the eastern boundary of this plateau in Paraná and São Paulo is about 1,000 meters, but towards the south and west there is a decline of several hundred meters.

The plateau of the Amazon occupies the larger part of the provinces of Matto Grosso and Goyas, a part of the south of the provinces of Amazon and Pará, and of the west of the province of Maranhão. Its southern border presents an escarpment 800 to 1,000 meters high to the opposite depression of the Paraguay River.

The plateau of São Francisco extends west of this river into the western parts of Minas Geraes and Bahia, and averages 800 meters in height above sea level.

The plateau of Parnahyba comprises nearly all the province of Piauhy and parts of the provinces of Maranhão and Ceará, and probably bounds the Amazonian plateau. The true mountains lie towards the east and center and form two principal systems, which are separated by the plateau of São Francisco and Paraná, the central and maritime. The first occupies the southern part of the province of Goyas and a part of that of Minas Geraes, and is united with the second by a transverse chain, the Serra das Vertentes, in the last-named province. This latter chain forms at various points the line of separation of the waters of the eastern part of the continent. The

One meter=3.281 feet.

maritime system is long and comparatively narrow and divides into two well-defined chains in the provinces of Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Paraná― the Serra Mantiquiera and Serra do Mar, which, as the name indicates, runs along the coast. It is to these branches that the Organ and Tijuca ridges belong, which give such a magnificent surrounding to the bay and city of Rio de Janeiro, although their altitude is not great.

The grand Amazonian Valley is proportionally narrow in its upper part, but broadens considerably upon the confluence of the Rio Negro with the main stream. In general the Amazon is bordered by low alluvial plains, which are interspersed with lakes and intersected by an infinite number of natural canals. The highest lands of this valley do not exceed an altitude of 300 meters. The extensive plains which form the basin of this river and a large part of the Argentine Republic, of Paraguay, and eastern Bolivia, begin in that part of the Paraguayan depression which belongs to Brazil. These plains are several hundred meters below the general level of the surrounding plateaux and are scarcely higher than the water of the river and its affluents, and are easily transformed into vast lakes and swamps during the rainy season. Botanically Brazil is divided into three principal regions: The equatorial belt, the coast belt, and that of the interior (sertão). This last is again divided into two sections, the northern, or tropical, and the southern, or subtropical, which is the smallest. The equatorial belt is covered with an immense virgin forest, which covers the basin of the Amazon for a mean length of 9° (20 N. to 7° S.). The climate of this region is always warm and moist and develops an extraordinary vegetative vigor and abundance; and, as there is but one season, each month one sees flowers blooming and fruit maturing.

From the Pará River the equatorial forest extends south to the mouth of the São Francisco as a mighty barrier. At this point, between the coast and the Serra do Mar, begins a primitive tropical forest which extends to the Rio de Janeiro and the thirteenth degree south, and penetrates quite deeply into the interior. More varied because of the broken character of the soil, it is almost impenetrable. * Besides a great variety of palms which it possesses in common with the equatorial forests, it contains an abundance of precious woods, among which the violet-ebony is found.

The interior does not offer a like magnificence of vegetation with the two preceding zones. The tropical forests appear only in the valleys, and in damp low spots. Indeed, its existence is impossible elsewhere, because of the strong contrast which the dry season makes to the wet. The vegetation of this part of Brazil is characteristic of the campos (plains). This term is applied to large extents of land covered with gramini verous plants, and distinguished from the Argentine pampas by their undulating form.

Their monotony is often broken by clumps and larger collections of various shrubby trees on the high grounds, and larger growths along the water courses and in the valleys.

In the dry season the campos are scorched by the sun, the trees become leafless, and one would call them dead; but with the first rain the leaves shoot out as if

by magic, and the campos are speedily covered with green.

This rather extended description, necessary to an intelligent consideration of the character of Brazil, relative to the character and extent of its present and possible agricultural productions, is sufficiently summarized by ex-Consul-General C. C. Andrews, in his thoughtful book on "Brazil: Its Condition and Prospects," published in 1887.* He says:

First, there are the hot lowlands, bordering the ocean; secondly, the highlands, partly prairie, and on the average 3,000 feet above the sea level, with a salubrious *Another edition is recently issued,

climate; and thirdly, the great forest-clad river basin. The vast basin of the Amazon, which occupies the northern part of the empire, and comprises a third of its whole area, is nearly level, although there are occasional bluffs and not very high mountain spurs on its shores as well as along the banks of its tributaries. This region is mostly covered with forests. The other two-thirds of the country are to a great extent mountains, or at least much elevated and broken. Distinct ranges of mountains extend along nearly the whole of the seacoast, but they generally are only about 4,000 feet high, are covered with a good growth of hard wood trees, and always have a green appearance. In the central and southern portions of Brazil are extensive undulating plains, mostly devoid of timber, covered with green grass in summer but shriveled and almost bare in winter,* and which, though better suited for cattle-raising than for field culture, occasionally suffer long-continued and fatal droughts.

For a further understanding of the matter, so far as it was investigated or reported upon in this respect by Prof. Louis Agassiz in 1865, the following is extracted from the interesting volume, which was one result of his travels, "A Journey in Brazil," edited and partly written by Mrs. Agassiz. He says of the Amazonian system:

It must be remembered that the valley of the Amazons is not a valley in the ordinary sense, bordered by walls or banks inclosing the waters which flow between. It is, on the contrary, a plain some 700 or 800 miles wide, and between 2,000 and 3,000 miles long, with a slope so slight that it hardly averages more than 1 foot in 10 miles. Between Obydos and the seashore, a distance of about 800 miles, the fall is only 45 feet; between Tabatingo and the seashore, a distance of more than 2,000 miles in a straight line, the fall is about 200 feet.

It appears from the foregoing testimony of most intelligent observers that by situation and topographical features almost the whole of Brazil, an area nearly as large as that of the United States exclusive of Alaska, is more or less suited to various productions of agriculture, grazing, and forestry. The inland plains are extensive, and the mountain elevations suited to coffee plantations, and these are two-thirds of the extent of the country, nearly; while the Amazon Basin is easily accessible in almost its whole extent through the great river and its affluents, and yields various woods, gums, resins, oils, nuts, medicinal and fiber plants in inexhaustible abundance, and is capable of supplying the world with certain fruits, etc. But as soil and climate are modifying factors, they are also to be considered relative to the portion of the country not included in the Amazon Basin in Brazil, which last, because of its annual inundation and general overflow, is excluded from consideration in this connection. The remoter portions are considered in their several connections with other countries.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE SOIL.

Prof. Agassiz made a special study of the accessible deposits underlying the alluvium of the Amazon, of those in the province of Ceará, and about Rio de Janeiro, and came to a clearly expressed conclusion

Winter in Brazil and south of the equator corresponds to our summer, and vice

versa,

that under such alluvium, generally in the valleys and upon the surface over a large portion of the higher land, especially on the mountains, the soil is usually composed of glacial drift. The composition of this drift he found to be principally a red to purple sandy clay, with rounded quartz pebbles mixed in, and generally underlying it in something like a semidistinct stratum. He found this drift in the north bank of the Amazon and about Rio, and in moraines in the Serra of Aratanha, in Ceará, filled with bowlders and sometimes revealing distinctly the dif ferent character of the underlying rock, where it cropped out or was denuded.

As to the value of this prevalent soil Mr. Andrews states:

Whatever may have been the origin of the soil-call it "drift" or "deposit" as we may-one thing is certain, that nearly over all the surface of Brazil the soil has a red color; and the darker the shade of red which it has, and the nearer it approaches to a purple color, the more fertile it is found to be. Such soil frequently occurs on the more elevated situations, where it produces a rich growth of vegetation, and indeed, is found on mountains more frequently than on low land.

But that this prevalent surface soil is not in sufficient quantity, or on the other hand rich enough in plant food at a cultivable depth to secure uniform fertility, there is sufficient positive evidence. And in addition there are intense climatic influences to be considered. Mr. Andrews further states:

The more fertile tracts of the country [in the interior] are like islands in a great area of thin soil. One may sometimes travel for days on horseback over poor and almost worthless land. A naturalist who has spent several years traveling in Brazil said to me: "Brazil is not a fertile country; even the rich vegetation in the Amazon Valley is not owing to fertile soil, but to the air and rain." Speaking of the large province of Matto Grosso, comprising almost a fourth of the empire, he said: "It is a splendid desert." Having traveled hundreds of miles in different directions in some of the most fertile and productive parts of the country, I must say that its vegetation is not more remarkably luxuriant than what would be met with in some parts of the United States or Europe.

Mr. Walter J. Hammond, a British railway manager in Brazil, is quoted by Mr. Andrews as giving "a fair summary of the character of the land," as follows:

The chief reason for the belief in the surpassing fertility of the land is not based on what it has been known to give per acre, but rather it is the result of an ocular impression of the glorious green mountains that form the coast line of the southern half of Brazil. Instinctively, all attribute fertility to forest lands, and to a certain extent this is right, owing to the magnificent alluvial deposits found in them, often the accumulation of many a century. But Brazil is not all covered with dense forests, and even where it is, and where the soil is sufficiently moist and good, the land is not by any means suitable for any other than tropical agriculture.

There are myriads of miles of sterile campo land, on which only rank grass grows, and there are miles untold of sandy plains, on which only scrub cork trees and other similar growths will flourish. Examining the province of São Paulo, notably one of the richest in Brazil, a territory not much inferior in size to England, Scotland, and Ireland combined, we find that down the coast for a distance of from 50 to 80 miles inland the land is comparatively useless from an agricultural point of view. Beyond this strip of land the soil is a little better, and will, after the forest has been

cut or burned down, produce one or two crops of Indian corn or rice without the need of manuring, after which it is used up. About 100 miles from the seacoast commences the coffee district, which is also variable in fertility, some parts being very good, others useless from being too dry, and others too sandy. Two hundred miles inland, in the region between the rivers Pardo, Piracicaba, and Tieté, where trap rock is chiefly found, is the famous red land. Even here there are stretches of miles and miles of sandy campo land, useless for anything.

Again, there are certainly good grazing lands in the west of São Paulo and in Minas Geraes, hundreds of miles from the markets, but they can not compare with the prairies of the Rio Grande and the Argentine Republic. riches are her tropical products and her unworked minerals.

Brazil's chief

To sum up

this question of "surprising fertility,” Brazil is very like the United States in being rich and poor as far as her soil goes, but she can not compete with the States in many things, owing to her physical configuration, her rivers in the southern half of the Empire being of little use, having short stretches of navigable water, and being cut up by innumerable rapids and waterfalls; finally, they chiefly run toward Bolivia and her other western frontiers instead of toward the coast.

It would, perhaps, be unfair to omit a statement having the sanction, presumably, of the Brazilian Government relative to its agriculture, which presents a more cheerful view, and which is contained in the "Agricultural instructions for those who may emigrate to Brazil, by Dr. Nicolau Joaquim Moreira," published in 1875. After dwelling upon the acknowledged richness of the arboreal vegetation, the general salubrity of the climate, the large yield of coffee, cotton, sugar cane, and corn per acre, as compared with the yield of some of these in the United States, Dr. Moreira says:

Brazil possesses a sufficiency of natural elements to raise it to the rank of a first-rate agricultural nation; but the vastness of its territory, its sparse population, the want of capital, which is absorbed by commerce, the absence of professional knowledge, the immobility of large sums employed in immense tracts of uncultivated land, and the difficulty of communication have retarded the progressive evolution of these elements. All the products of Europe, Asia, and Africa thrive on this blessed soil as in their native land.

CLIMATIC INFLUENCES UPON AGRICULTURE.

To arrive at a reasonable conclusion as to the status of Brazil as an agricultural country, or the possibilities of its development in that direction, climatic conditions and influences must be considered as well as topographical features and the character of the soil. Here, as before, the Brazilian basin of the Amazon need not be considered, as it is certain that much and probable that most of it will never be cultivable, for obvious reasons, except for coffee in some parts.

As to the temperature Mr. O. H. Dockery, consul-general of the United States at Rio de Janeiro, states in a dispatch to the Department of State as follows:

The mean temperature in the country between Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon is 78.8° above zero;* that of the Amazon is 80.6°. In no part of Brazil is it hardly

*As written, "26° centigrade above zero;” but herein centigrade is changed to Fahrenheit.

19152-No. 2- -6