Brazil nut

“ The Brazil nut was first described by Humboldt, but since his time it has become a common article of merchandise in Europe; the tree which bears it is itself large, and the fruit, with its fifteen or twenty nuts, is tremendously heavy, and generally breaks in falling from the tree when ripe, not infrequently cracking the shells inside, when the birds and monkeys are able to enjoy the oily kernel ”

“ This is the reason why the one kind of nut is so much dearer than the other. The Sapucaya is not less abundant, probably, than the Bertholletia, but its nuts in falling are scattered about and eaten by wild animals; whilst the full capsules of Brazil-nuts are collected entire by the natives. ”

“ The island yielded an abundance of nuts of various descriptions, the most prolific being the Brazil nut, which grows in the form of a large sphere, from three to four inches in diameter, the shell being very hard, like the cocoanut, and when broken open is found to be filled with the segmentally formed nuts which we all know. ”

“ In almost every house, whether Indian or Brazilian, I observed a large pot of this fruit preparing, either indoors over a fire made on the floor, or on the ground under a tree in the neighbourhood of the house. As soon as they are nearly ready, groups of children in a state of nudity, and half naked men and women seat themselves around the pot, each furnished with two stones, a larger and a smaller one, for the purpose of breaking the nut after they have devoured the outward fleshy part; the taste of the kernel is not unlike that of boiled beans. ”

“ I was talking to your secretary a few minutes in the hotel lobby this morning and he told me that while some of you were in the nut business with a majority of you it was a hobby. That is the altruistic spirit that counts in these days when most of us look upon things in a materialistic way.
There was a time when I thought that most nuts came from Brazil, but I am glad to learn that we grow the nuts we eat here in the good old U. S. A., and some right here in Pennsylvania and in Lancaster County. ”

“ These products are principally dried fish, and oil from the turtles’ eggs and cow-fish, for the inland trade; and salsaparilha, piassaba, India-rubber, Brazil-nuts, balsam of capivi, and cacao, for the exports. Though the coffee-plant and sugar-cane grow everywhere almost spontaneously, yet coffee and sugar have to be imported from other parts of Brazil for home consumption. Beef is everywhere bad, principally because there are no good pastures near the towns where cattle brought from a distance can be fattened, and no one thinks of making them, though it might easily be done. ”

“ The kidney-shaped nut, when raw, is dangerous to eat because of poisonous juice it contains; but a roasting drives out the poisonous quality and the nut is then delicious. The mango, which, to those who have cultivated a liking, is the most delicious of fruits, grows to great size in Bahia, and has a most excellent flavour. ”

“ The principal exports are rubber, cacao, coffee, [145] sugar, cotton, Brazil nuts, sarsaparilla, vanilla, farina, copaiba, tobacco, rum, hides, fish, parrots, and monkeys. [146] Pará exceeds in the number of its indigenous commodities any other port in the world, but the trade at present is insignificant when we consider the vast extent and resources of the country. The city can never have a rival at the mouth of the Amazon, and is destined to become a great emporium. But Brazilian legislation stands in the way. Heavy import duties are charged—from 35 to 45 per cent. ”

“ The collector of Brazil nuts will have a care not to approach the trees in a high wind, that is when the nuts are ripe. For the nuts, enclosed in their capsule or covering, are as hard and heavy as a small cannon-ball, and will certainly crack his crown if by mischance one falls upon his head. ”

“ Other items which displayed marked rises up to 1918 were lard, rice, Brazil nuts, carnauba wax, manganese ore, precious and semi-precious stones, and chilled or frozen beef. Prosperity over all Brazil depends much more upon volume and variety of goods exported than upon prices, for while soaring values put large profits into the hands of the few, great volumes of products mean employment for the field labourer or collector, for transportation companies, and a host of intermediaries. ”

“ The tree which bears the Brazil nuts of commerce is one of the highest of the Amazonian trees and overtops the royal palm. Its foliage is of a deep green and spreads out on all sides. The nuts grow in a great pod as large as a good-sized apple, and inside the thick husk will be found fifteen or twenty of these rich and delicious nuts. Flowering trees are omnipresent in these forests, and some of them are covered with beautiful flowers ”

“ It seems to me, that, though the character and habits of the Brazilians are not those of an agricultural people, Brazil is an essentially agricultural country, and some occurrences in her recent history confirm this view. Brazil had formerly a great variety of agricultural products, but now the number of plants under culture is rather limited. Agricultural operations are at present centred upon coffee, cotton, sugar, tobacco, mandioca, some cereals, beans, and cocoa. Owing to her climate and her geographical position, the vegetable zones of Brazil are not so marked as those of other countries. ”

“ Hence no cotton, coffee, or sugar is grown for exportation, and the quantity consumed in the district is very limited, owing to the small number of the inhabitants, and the miserable indigence in which they generally live, their common diet being Indian corn-flour, boiled beans, and a little pork. The trade to Rio de Janeiro is much similar to that of Minas Novas, and consists chiefly in iron, salt, cotton-prints, woollens, arms, hardware, and a few trivial luxuries: also hats and India goods. Persons of all ranks are eager to purchase negroes. ”

“ In the first place we had black beans stewed with carne secca (dried meat) , the invariable accompaniment of every meal in Brazil. There is no house so poor that it does not have its feijōes, no house so rich as to exclude this homely but most excellent dish, a favorite alike with high and low. Then there was chicken stewed with potatoes and rice, almost as marked a feature of the Brazilian cuisine as the black beans. Beside these, there were eggs served in various ways, cold meat, wine, coffee, and bread. Vegetables seem to be rare, though one would expect a plentiful variety in this climate. ”

“ Here we took a boat and rowed to the city, where we spent some hours in rambling about, collecting specimens, examining drift formations, &c. In the course of our excursion we fell in with some friends of Major Coutinho’s, who took us home with them to an excellent breakfast of fresh fish, with bread, coffee, and wine. The bread is to be noticed here, for it is said to be the best in Brazil. The flour is the same as elsewhere, and the people generally attribute the superiority of their bread to some quality of the water. ”

“ Commerce.—The imports, exports and domestic trade of Brazil are by reason of their magnitude and peculiar character the most important in South America, though the per capita aggregate is less than that of Argentina. Although an agricultural country, Brazil does not produce all its own bread and meat, and the imports of wheat, wheat flour, rice, fish, jerked beef and preserved meats, lard, butter, beans, potatoes, packed fruits and vegetables, Indian corn and other food-stuffs, are surprisingly large. ”

“ It is true that the European War has caused a revival of meat export from the United States, but home demands are today so acute that no more than a temporary reaping of high prices is at the bottom of the movement. Argentina may look for a more formidable, because a younger, rival, nearer to her northern border.
The qualifications of Brazil as a future land of fine cattle are three in the main: first, her possession of an existing rebanho of 30,000,000 head; next her natural pastures and good climate which permit stock to remain in the open during the winter ”

“ The regions served could be expected to produce meat and hides from the enormous pastures of the State; minerals from the mountains of Goyaz; hardwoods from the northerly forests; rubber from the same forestal lands, together with dyes and drugs; the line would greatly encourage cattle-raising and cereal planting. The packing industry is yet in its infancy in Brazil, for the first frigorificos were only opened in the latter part of 1914, and the world has not yet realized the extent to which it may attain. ”

“ I was struck with the large strings of onions that were seen hanging in almost every part of the market, and was told that they are shipped to the port from Portugal in immense numbers, though the soil and climate of Brazil is said to be well adapted to their production. Those things which grow here in great abundance, without work, satisfy the wants of the lower class of people, and they do not care to devote their energies to tilling the soil. ”

“ Its exports first in importance are cotton, and sugar, and then hides. With the exception of the Reconvavo of Bahia, there is probably no part of Brazil so populous as the greater part of this province, which, embracing an area of about 150 by 60 miles, has a population of fully a quarter of a million, chiefly addicted to agriculture, here prosecuted with great success, as the soil is most rich, yielding nearly every Brazilian produce in great profusion; but tobacco, once a prime staple, is falling off, owing to the cessation of imported slave labour ”

“ The principal products of Brazil are red wood, bearing the name of the country; sugar, gold, tobacco, snuff, whale oil, and various kinds of drugs; and the Portuguese build their best ships in this country. Brazil has now become very populous, and the people take great delight in arms, especially about the gold mines, to which people of all kinds resort in great numbers, especially negroes and mulattoes. ”

“ To show the “riograndense” growth in wheat production:
Santa Catharina is a cereal State, but does not today produce notable quantities; São Paulo, the high interior of Rio de Janeiro, and the hills of Minas, are all suitable; fine wheat, barley and oats are often seen in the vicinity of European colonies. But Brazilian production is not yet within measurable distance of coping with internal demands, and as a result wheat, with wheat-flour, accounts for one-fifth of Brazil’s total import values. The bulk of the grain imported comes from the River Plate. ”

“ Her soil and climate conspire to bestow upon her agriculture an opulence which is unsurpassed and probably unequalled. An acre of cotton yields in Brazil four times as much as an acre yields in the United States. Wheat gives a return of thirty to seventy fold; maize, of two hundred to four hundred fold; rice, of a thousand fold. Brazil supplies nearly one-half the coffee which the human family consumes. An endless variety of plants thrive in her genial soil. Sugar and tobacco, as well as cotton, coffee, and tea, are staple productions. ”

“ Immense quantities of it are imported from the Argentine Republic and Uruguay, and it is shipped here by the ton. It is said that thirty thousand tons of it are annually imported into Brazil, and it furnishes the staple food for the slaves on the plantations and the common people in the cities. Jerked beef and beans are always to be found on the table, and both mixed in a stew with plenty of garlic compose the omnipresent national dish. ”

“ Before the coming of the Germans, South Brazil was almost totally neglected; demand for tropical produce such as sugar and tobacco had kept the attention of Portuguese and their mixed-blood descendants for over three centuries to North Brazil, where negro slaves multiplied on the warm coast; the grassy uplands of the south attracted few Brazilians, and these chiefly bandeirantes whose main business was to keep out Spaniards from the Plate, and whose wild cattle strayed and bred on the natural pastures. ”

“ The free trade legislation of England in 1845 opened the consumption of this country to Brazilian sugar, one of the great productions of Brazil, and the Revolution of 1848 in France was followed by the partial admission to France of Brazilian coffee, then the largest item of the agriculture of the Empire. Under these influences an immense impetus was given to the productive capacity of Brazil. ”

“ The staple articles of trade from Brazil and the river Plate which are most in demand in this country, when its markets are not overstocked, are cotton, sugar, coffee, hides, tallow of good quality, horns, horse and cow hair, fur-skins, and feathers. Brazil is well calculated for growing [467] sugar, having every convenience of situation, and all the materials requisite for machinery. ”

“ The great export trade of Brazil, with its staple products, furnishes a stream of gold, which, more or less, becomes dispersed throughout the country, and creates strong ties of union between the various States, which otherwise might not exist in unison.
As to sugar, however, Brazil is in large degree its own customer. The great export is coffee, as it was once sugar, and in part rubber. Meat also finds its principal market at home. Brazil will soon supply its own wants in flour, which now comes in part from Argentina. ”

“ Though Brazil has long been, and is still, famous for its production of diamonds, precious stones, and gold, yet these are as nothing when compared with her exports of sugar, coffee, and hides, not taking into account her product of rice, cocoa, tobacco, dyewoods, and other important staples. A large portion of the abnormal growth of her forests is valuable for its timber, resins, fibre, and fruits. ”