The Indian corn and pulse are in general ripe in four months or eighteen weeks. The average return is two hundred for one; it is a bad harvest when it falls short of one hundred and fifty.
The mandioca is rarely ready to take up in less than eighteen or twenty months; if the land be suitable, it then produces from six to twelve pounds weight per plant[19]. They grow very little indigo in this neighbourhood, and what they have is of indifferent quality. Their pumpkins are of enormous size, and small ones are sometimes served up as table-vegetables, but more frequently given as food to the horses. Melons here are scarcely palatable.
In no branch of husbandry are the farmers so defective as in the management of cattle. No artificial grasses are cultivated, no enclosures are made, nor is any fodder laid up against the season of scarcity. The cows are never milked regularly; they seem to be considered rather as an incumbrance to a farm than a valuable part of the stock. They constantly require salt, which is given them once in fifteen or twenty days, in small proportions. The dairies, if such they may be called, are managed in so slovenly a manner, that the little butter which is made becomes rancid in a few days, and the cheese is good for nothing. In this essential department the Paulistas are deplorably deficient; rarely indeed is there to be seen a farm with one convenience belonging to it. For want of proper places in which to store their produce, they are obliged to lay it in promiscuous heaps; and it is not uncommon to see coffee, cotton, maize, and beans, thrown into the corners of a damp shed, and covered with a green hide. One half is invariably spoiled by mould and putridity, and the remainder is much deteriorated, through this idle and stupid negligence.
They feed their pigs on Indian corn in a crude state; the time for confining them to fatten is at eight or ten months old; and the quantity consumed for the purpose is eight or ten Winchester bushels each. When killed, the lean is cut off the sides as clean as possible, the fat is cured with very little salt, and in a few days is ready for market. The ribs, chine-bone, and lean parts are dried for home consumption.