inery is used wherever possible, and in the later stages of the
production the Brazilian coffee gets the best attention that skill can
devise. As a consequence the coffee product of Brazil is rising in the
estimation of coffee-users. The shrubs are cultivated under palm-trees
so as to keep them from the intense heat of the sun. Three or four
harvests of berries are obtained in a year. Rio Janeiro and SANTOS are
the two chief centres of the coffee industry. Next to coffee the chief
tropical product is SUGAR, the export of which is about 250,000 tons
annually, principally from Pernambuco. Other products of the tropical
area of Brazil are COCOA and COTTON, from the cultivated coast
regions, and RUBBER and Brazil-nuts, from the dense forests of the
lower Amazon; also DYEWOODS and CABINET WOODS, drugs, and diamonds.
For many years Brazil was celebrated for its diamonds--obtained
chiefly from a town in the interior named Diamantina. The present
diamond production is not large. From the temperate agricultural
region of the south, dried beef, hides, and tallow are the chief
exports. The greatest customer of Brazilian produce is the United
States, which takes $70,000,000 worth. Great Britain is next, with
$35,000,000 worth (in rubber alone in 1896 $15,000,000). Brazil gets
her goods principally from Great Britain, the United States, France,
and Germany--from Great Britain $20,000,000, from the United States
$13,000,000. The imports include almost all articles needed for
domestic and manufacturing purposes--particularly cottons and
woollens, ironware, machinery, lumber, flour, rice, dried meats,
kerosene, butter, and fish. There are, however, 155 cotton factories
established in Brazil, with capital to the value of $50,000,000, and
cotton manufacturing is protected by very heavy duties. But
agricultural machinery and such like manufactures are very lightly
taxed. The principal food of the people is manioc flour (tapioca).

RIO JANEIRO

RIO JANEIRO (674,972), the capital and principal city, though a
poor-looking place, is situated on a magnificent harbour--one of the
very finest in the world. About 1500 vessels, with tonnage amounting
to 2,500,000 tons, enter Rio Janeiro with foreign trade annually. Nine
thousand miles of railway have been built in Brazil and 3500 more are
in course of construction, and 12,000 miles of telegraph routes have
been built. Rio Janeiro is the chief railway centre, but other centres
are RIO GRANDE DO S