The growing of flax is on the increase in Brazil, the state of Sao Paulo taking the lead in this as in other oil products. In 1917 several factories had already turned their attention to the production of flaxseed oil and were also experimenting with peanuts for their oil quali ties. In Brazil peanuts grow luxuriantly and are of a peculiarly oily quality. The crop is abundant for six months in the year and the beans can be handled by the same machinery used to manufacture the castor bean and other oils. Brazil possesses many oil-bearing nuts, all of which have as yet been little exploited. Among these are the cashew, ucuba, copra and babasu. Some of these are already used in the manufacture of soap.
No other Brazilian crop increased in such relatively large proportions as that of the brown or black bean from 1914 to 1918. In 1914 there was practically no exportation of Brazilian beans and the bean crop of Sao Paulo was only worth $6,700 in 1915. But Sao Paulo produced for export beans valued at $2,204,000 in 1916, out of a total bean crop of $3,500,000 exported. About three-fourths of this went to the United States. As Rio de Janeito handles the constantly increasing bean crop of the agricultural colonies of the Brazilian Rail way Company and other colonies in the states of Parana, Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul, she had already, in January 1917, outdis tanced other Brazilian ports in bean exports. The rapid increase in the exportation of beans from Brazil is shown in the following table: Year Pounds 1914 9,770 1915 607,549 1916 100,299,667 1917 (5 months) 127.785,528 Other Important Crops.— The cultivation of cotton, cacao and tobacco may be said to in crease very gradually, in view of the extent of the country and the excellence of the products. The wool crop exported reached 4198,630 pounds in 1912 and was valued at $571,276. In 1915 it fell to 997,630 pounds valued at $193,065. Cotton is grown principally in Pernambuco, Parahyba, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceara Ala goas, Maranhao, Sergipe, Sao Paulo and Minas Geraes. The average cotton crop in recent years is close to 1,000,000 bales of 176 pounds each. Exports of cotton have decreased as the home consumption has increased. Mandioca, or farhina de mandioca, primarily the food of aborginal tribes, has been to such an extent cul tivated that mandioca flour has become actually the staple food of Brazilians. The Pan Amer
ican Union's mentioned above, says: °It is a shrub about four feet high which has been induced to change its root into a veritable tuber. In its raw state mandioca is an irritant, not infrequently a deadly poison, but properly prepared it becomes a richly nutritive food, esteemed by Brazilians high and low, and forms a staple for bread throughout the country. All Brazil grows the plant, but it is used chiefly along the littoral and on the lower plateaus. From June to September is the best planting season, the root being gathered eight months to two years afterwards.° Great care is exer cised in treating it in such a way that the pois onous starchy contents shall be changed into healthful and edible starch. The natives are most expert in their methods of doing this; and they cannot be regarded as procrastinating workers, inasmuch as in the course of a single day—the day on which the tubers are gathered —all the various processes of grating, desicca tion and roasting must be completed.
The question of labor, which affects agricul ture and the manufacturing industries alike, will be briefly discussed, as we pass from the former subject to the latter. Brazil's achievements, commendable though they seem in certain re spects, are still almost as nothing compared with agricultural possibilities in a region so vast and singularly favored by nature. The Brazilians realize and admit their long con tinued neglect of wholly exceptional opportu nities; and in 1916 showed that they had been stimulated to renewed efforts by the withdrawal of food supplies formerly received from Europe and by other war conditions.
Bibliography.— The Americas (New York, published monthly, 1914-18); Grossi, V., della Colonizzazione Europea al Brasile e della Emigrazione Italiana nello Stato di S. Paulo) (Milan, Rome, Naples 1914); Pan American Union, ( B razil : General Descriptive Data) (Washington 1915); Year Book, Bra zilian) (Rio de Janeiro). See also studies of this subject in the books by Denis and Walle mentioned in other articles of the Brazilian series. MARRION Wri.cox.