Brazil is not only the land where the nuts come from, but it is also the land where the world’s coffee comes from as well. Two-thirds, and possibly three-fourths, of all the coffee used in the world is produced by this one great country. It matters little whether your grocer labels your coffee Mocha, Java, or any other name, it is a pretty safe guess to say that it was raised in Brazil. Richer than gold have proven the stretches of red soil where this berry grows. This soil occurs at intervals from the state of Pernambuco south almost to Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state. Of Brazil’s production three-fourths or more is grown in the state of SÃo Paulo, thus making the production of this one state alone more than half of the world’s production. Considering the enormous quantity of coffee consumed, this product and its cultivation in Brazil becomes of world-wide interest.

The name coffee is derived from Kaffa, a town in Arabia, where it was first grown. Coffee began to be introduced into Europe in the fifteenth century, where coffee houses were established and soon became very popular. In Turkey and England they later came under royal displeasure; in the former country, because the seduction of the beverage kept the people from the services of the mosque, and caused them to ignore the hours for prayer; in the latter, because the coffee houses were believed to be places of sedition, and disloyalty to the crown. In spite of royal displeasure and the restrictions of the government, however, the use of the coffee beverage continually grew, and the restrictive measures seemed to have little effect on its use.

About the middle of the eighteenth century the cultivation was introduced into the New World, in Guatemala, Mexico, the West Indies and Brazil. In the latter country it is said to have been introduced about 1761, by a deserter who came to that country and brought with him a few seeds. Its cultivation was, however, on a very small scale for a number of decades, but was gradually introduced into a number of states where it was found adapted to the soil. It was not until early in the nineteenth century that the cultivation of this plant on a large scale was begun at Campinas, and within a few years the production had reached an important figure. In the first year of that century it is said that two bags were sent to foreign markets from Brazil. A dozen years later the shipment of bags was numbered by the thousands, until, in 1817, the exports are reported to have been in excess of sixty thousand bags. The state of SÃo Paulo from the very first took the lead in production of coffee, as the soil of that state seemed especially adapted to its cultivation. In this state alone, at the present time, it is estimated that there are nearly seven hundred millions of trees, and the annual production will average more than ten million sacks, or one billion three hundred and twenty million pounds of this berry. These figures will not be materially altered for several years, because of the restrictive legislation prohibiting the planting of new trees, which will be explained more in detail later.

Successful cultivation of coffee, like that of almost any other valuable crop, requires certain conditions of soil and climate. These are a rich earth, a certain rarefication of air and plenty of moisture. The terra roxa (red earth) of Brazil is very rich, and is the result of the decomposition of rocks of basaltic origin. The best lands are at an altitude of one thousand five hundred feet, or more, above sea level and require eighty inches or more of annual rainfall. Furthermore, hilly lands with an eastern exposure are generally chosen. Although plantations are sometimes found on comparatively level ground. Too much or too little moisture, or a frost, will spoil a season’s crop. A coffee field, with its trees laid out in regular rows stretching as far as the eye can see to the top of the hills in either direction, is a beautiful sight. In the foreground the rows of trees, with the roads at regular intervals and the contrast of green against the red soil, are plainly visible; but, as distance increases, they blend together until the whole seems a field of living green, gently swaying in the breeze. Like a great panorama these fields spread out in every direction in the neighbourhood of RiberÃo Preto, the centre of the richest coffee district.

Coffee trees are a matter of slow growth, requiring at least four years to mature after the young plants are set out. The seed is always planted in the woods, where patches are cleared for that purpose, and where the necessary shade and moisture are found. They are always transplanted during the rainy season, when about eighteen months old and perhaps a foot high, and during this work the tender plants are handled very carefully. In many countries the young trees are shaded by banana stalks, but that method is not followed in Brazil. Corn is oftentimes planted between the rows of coffee trees to bring an extra crop, but this method is not approved by the best planters, as coffee trees exhaust the soil rapidly enough by themselves. On some of the old fazendas the plants are set in rows not more than eight or ten feet apart, but the newer plantations are at a distance of from twelve to fifteen feet. The trees are carefully pruned, and the ground weeded each year, and a crop will be produced about the fifth year after planting. If the trees are left to grow untrimmed they will reach a height of eighteen or twenty feet, but they are usually kept down to a height of about twelve feet, or less, and are not allowed to spread out too much. One quickly learns to distinguish between a well-kept and a poorly-cultivated coffee plantation by its trimmed or untrimmed appearance. The growth of weeds is sometimes allowed, especially on hillsides, as the roots of the weeds prevent the soil from washing during the tropical downpours. Otherwise the rich surface dirt will disappear down into the valleys below. A planter’s credit was at one time determined by the number of trees he owned, and that was the reason that some of the fields were planted so closely together. It has been proven, however, by experience, that close planting does not pay. One of the most successful planters told me that even the wagon roads, which are left at intervals of perhaps five hundred feet, were not a loss, for the trees on each side produced so much more abundantly that they made up for the row or two of trees left out for the road.

The coffee tree is an evergreen, and usually has a single trunk with many branches. The leaves are long, smooth and dark green in appearance. They are almost a shiny green like the holly, and look as though they had been varnished. The blossoms grow in great abundance in the axils of the branches, and a field in blossom is most entrancing. In the early morning, after a refreshing shower, or while the dew still lingers, the fields with their small, white blossoms are not only a beautiful sight to the eye, but an aroma arises from them that fills the air with a sweet perfume. The fruit usually grows in clusters of from a half dozen to a dozen berries, which surround the joints almost like a necklace just over the leaves. When ripe, the coffee berries resemble very much a cranberry of medium size. Then the coffee field is again a pretty picture, for the white flowers have turned into beautiful red berries, and the bushes resemble richly loaded cherry trees. The tree will produce abundant crops after the sixth year, and I saw fields that were at least thirty-five years old, and still bearing profitable crops. It is said that the coffee trees will produce as long as the life of man. There are two kinds of trees cultivated in Brazil: the common and the yellow-berried, or Botucatu, and generally called the Bourbon. The yellow-berried variety develops more rapidly, and gives more abundant crops, but its cultivation is more difficult. This latter is the one most generally cultivated at the present time, but it brings a lower price because it is said to be inferior to the other in aromatic qualities and the weight of the grain. Its introduction came about when the price was very high and every planter was anxious to obtain as great a production as possible.

The coffee trees begin to blossom in September and continue to bloom for several weeks. The maturing process is also irregular, and covers a period of a couple of months. It requires a number of months for the berries to mature, and in the state of SÃo Paulo, for instance, the first picking does not take place until the last of May or first of June. From that time on the plantations are scenes of activity for five or six months, until the last of the crop is dispatched to the commission houses in Santos. The fields will then be filled with men, women and children with their baskets, gathering up the precious fruit, ready to be taken to the drying yards.

At harvesting time thousands of pickers flock to the coffee regions from other parts of Brazil, as they are able to earn good wages for a few weeks. Many whole families will travel for days on foot, when they have not enough money to pay their railroad fares. There is often considerable rivalry among the pickers to see who can pick the most; but there is also the further incentive to rapid work in the fact that all wages are paid at so much for a fixed quantity. Fifty pounds is considered a good day’s picking when it is done from the trees. The method in general operation on the large fazendas is to strip the branches of all their coffee berries, by pulling them between the fingers, and then others follow up and pick up the berries, leaves, etc., from the ground, or the sheets which have been spread out to catch them. In this way only one picking is made even though some of the berries have become overripe, and others are green owing to the uneven ripening. This causes a considerable unavoidable loss. In an extraordinary season a tree may produce as much as seven pounds of coffee, but a fair average is three pounds per tree.

The gathering and preparation of the berries is a difficult and laborious operation involving a number of processes. The large plantations are equipped with all the necessary paved yards and machinery for this work, and the smaller planters send theirs to central factories, or beneficios, as they are called. The coffee must be washed, pulped, dried and submitted to several stages of preparation. The washing is a simple process, but the work of drying requires the greatest care, for it exercises a great influence on the value of the coffee. There are at least two distinct processes in the preparation of the coffee, but it is always first washed and then soaked in order to soften the pulp, so that it can be removed, for the coffee beans are in the centre. This “pulping” is done by a revolving cylinder set with teeth, after which the beans are run into tanks for a thorough washing to remove all traces of the pulp.

Some have a series of these tanks through which the coffee is passed, and the beans are then carried by means of running water out through the paving yards. On these great yards of beaten earth, paved with bricks or cemented, and sometimes tarred (for they dry quicker on a tarred floor), the berries are spread out in thin layers to dry. If you would take up a handful at this time you would find they were covered with a soft gummy substance. No artificial drying process equals that of the sun’s rays. Men with wooden rakes, and in their bare feet, are kept constantly busy turning over the berries to hasten this process, which oftentimes requires many days, and even weeks, for it is necessary that they be evenly dried.

You probably expect to see a green berry or bean at this time but they are still covered with a parchment-like skin. When they are finally dried this parchment skin is removed by passing the beans through heavy rollers, and the chaff is cleared away by machine work similar to that used for similar processes in wheat threshing and cleaning. By a continuous process the beans are passed through machines which husk, fan, polish and sort them according to sizes. The berries are now a light olive-green colour. The little round beans are classed as “Mocha” and another size as “Java,” etc. The various grades are then sacked in coarse sacks, labelled with the name of the fazenda and the grade, and shipped to Rio de Janeiro, or Santos, where the great commission houses are located.

The commission houses are important institutions and practically own many of the fazendas through advance loans, and the planter is helpless against charges that are oftentimes excessive. In the warehouses the coffee is all emptied out in great piles, and repacked in new sacks, often being regraded by the commissionaires. The planter is burdened with a great number of expenses. The net price to him the past year was only a little over four cents per pound. Among these expenses the following is a fair list as taken from an official publication, and verified to me by a leading planter: transportation to the railroad station, transportation to Santos, municipal export tax, resacking charges, shipping old sacks back, brokers’ commission (should be three per cent., but is in fact much higher), a special tax of $1.00 per sack and an ad valorem export tax of nine per cent., and a number of other minor charges. In the end it is the commission man who has the smallest amount of work and least risk, who makes the big money at the present price of coffee. It used to be when the planter received ten to twelve cents per pound for his coffee that the fazendero rolled in wealth, and no extravagance or luxury was beyond him. At the present time only those who have the latest improved machinery, so that the cost of preparation is reduced to a minimum, are making much money. A rise or fall of a cent per pound often means prosperity to the coffee producer or the reverse. The price to-day is not more than one-third of what it was a number of years ago. It is probably quite possible to simplify the cultivation of coffee trees so that there would be a considerable margin of profit at the present prices. One progressive planter looks after forty thousand trees with one man, four mules and two machines of a recent pattern, according to a report that I saw.

The steady decrease in the price of coffee during several years led to a new departure in economics, by the three great coffee producing states of Brazil. A sack of coffee (one hundred and thirty-two pounds), which in 1895 was worth almost $20.00 in Europe, had fallen to $8.00 in 1905. The coffee planters were almost in despair over this low price, which threatened to spell ruin for many of them within a short time. Among themselves they had attempted various measures, but all of them had failed. An attempt had been made as early as 1901, by the state of SÃo Paulo, to remedy this situation, by a practically prohibitive tax upon new plantations, allowing each planter to set out each year only five per cent. of what he already possessed. This would not much more than replace the natural decay. This order was originally made for a period of five years, but has since been continued for another period of the same length.

This measure failed to bring about the desired result. Finally, when the crop of 1906-7 promised to be such an unusual crop, the planters appealed to the government for further relief. The state was equally interested, since by far the greatest part of the revenue of the state, and the various municipalities as well, is derived from its tax upon coffee, and they were afraid that the planters would become panicky and abandon coffee cultivation. Because of this alarm the governments of the three states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Geraes and SÃo Paulo entered into an agreement, known as the TaubatÉ Agreement, by which these states, acting through SÃo Paulo, agreed to buy up on the market the surplus production and store it until such time as, in the judgment of the commissioners, conditions warranted its sale.

This judgment was based upon the observation that coffee trees exhaust themselves by such an extraordinary crop, and yield only average crops for the next two or three years. They figured that by that time the natural increase in the consumption would give a market for this coffee. Further, it was known that coffee improves, rather than deteriorates, with age. A special export tax of $0.60 to $1.00 per sack was established at the ports of Rio and Santos, and the government of SÃo Paulo was authorized to borrow not to exceed $45,000,000 to raise a fund to purchase the coffee, each of the three states jointly binding themselves in the obligation. As a result of this agreement that state purchased eight million sacks of coffee in the market, and these were stored in a number of central points in Europe, as well as in New York. Money was borrowed at comparatively high rates. Both the state obligation was given and the stored coffee pledged as collateral security. At that time it was estimated that there would be, including the new crop, a surplus stock of fourteen million sacks of coffee, representing almost one year’s consumption.

The result of this action of the coffee producing states has not been what was expected. The price has not increased as was predicted, and the interest and other expenses have been a great drain upon revenues. Another part of the scheme was to limit the exportations from the country; nine million sacks being fixed for the year 1908, nine million five hundred thousand for the year 1909, and ten million for the following years. All coffee exported above that amount would be subject to an additional tax which made it prohibitive. Furthermore, the crops were rather larger than was expected, so that the surplus stock had not appreciatively decreased. In the winter of 1909-10, the time of my visit, there was a movement on foot, which gained a great many adherents, to arbitrarily destroy ten per cent. of the previous season’s crop, but this was not done. Within four months after the new crop came in, the limit allowed for export had been reached, and the export trade was at a standstill. It was a new attempt to get around the law of supply and demand. The final result of this attempt is as yet problematical, and remains to be seen. It was a bold and original effort that has many defenders, and many critics as well, right among the Brazilian people.

If not the best, the Brazilians make one of the best cups of coffee in the world. Never have I tasted such delicious coffee as I did almost all over that republic. The Brazilians understand fully the art of preparing this delicious beverage, and make it fit for kings and queens. They generally choose a coffee berry at least two years old, as they say that age improves the aroma. Some even say that five or six years’ storage in a dry place is still better. Another essential, they say, is to roast and grind the coffee fresh every day. The roasting process is very thorough, for it is roasted until the average American housewife would call it burned. The black roasted coffee is reduced to a fine powder, and then placed in a woollen bag through which hot water is poured. It is never allowed to boil, so that their coffee is rather a percolation than an extraction. I am not a cook, but I do know that the coffee as prepared by the Brazilians is delicious, and seems to be free from the harmful effects. In the morning it is served in about equal proportions with hot milk, but at all other times clear. Little dainty cups of black coffee with plenty of damp sugar are always served at social calls, at nearly all public offices and in many other places where one visits. In fact, if you called on a Brazilian family, and coffee or some other refreshment were not served, you would almost be justified in believing that your call was not especially welcome. I drank coffee many times, and at all hours, when offered, and often feared the consequences, but never felt the slightest ill effect.