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National Geographic : 1944 Jan
Contents
Brazil's Potent Weapons "The course is equivalent to about 10 or 15 hours of actual flying," said the doctor. "Even more important than the training it gives in instrument flying, the course eliminates many whose coordination is not of the caliber re quired for a pilot. It also eliminates many who are only thrilled by the idea of being pilots of the movie hero variety. "From a beginning class of perhaps 50 students," continued the doctor, "I may end with only 10 or 15, but they have excellent possibilities as pilots." Coffee and Cotton Still Staples Despite the industrial expansion of Sao Paulo, much of its economy is still tied" to the staple crops of coffee and cotton. Through here and from the near-by seaport of Santos passes the bulk of these two important prod ucts. Until 1942 the exports of cotton suffered little. Canada's purchases largely counterbal anced lost European markets. Since then lack of shipping has cut off this outlet. Even though cotton stocks are piling up, prices remain good. The Brazilian Govern ment has granted loans to stabilize prices, and there is a certain amount of speculative buy ing. Because of gasoline rationing, too, transport of the crop from farms to gins has been ex tremely slow. Before the war local textile mills were utiliz ing about 45,000 tons of raw spinning cotton annually. Now they have increased that con sumption to about 80,000 tons, and an export market for textiles is being developed in Argentina and other South American coun tries. That demand, however, represents less than one-fourth of the country's cotton pro duction, for it is estimated that the 1943 crop will be approximately 350,000 tons. As Brazilian cotton is much cheaper than United States cotton, dealers believe that, should the war end in a reasonably short time, the surpluses would be quickly sold; so at the moment, at least, they were not worrying. On coffee, the United States has agreed to underwrite any unshipped balances on a basic quota of 9,300,000 bags for the current crop year. A similar agreement has been made on 1,300,000 bags of cocoa. For the 1941-42 crop some 2,654,000 bags of coffee remained 'unshipped; there may be perhaps 3,000,000 bags on the present crop. Since the Tunisian Campaign ended, we have been hearing of increased quantities of coffee reaching the States. When coffee ra tioning was suspended, that meant more coffee was moving out of Santos. Another product leaving Santos is castor bean seed. War demands have increased Brazilian production of castor beans to some ten times what it was ten years ago. Strange Oils and Waxes Ever hear of babassu nut oil, oiticica oil, and copaiba oil; or of carnauba wax, and uricuri wax? I must confess that I hadn't until the Amer ican Embassy in Rio informed me that they were on the list of materials the United States is drawing from Brazil, along with rotenone, pyrethrum flowers, and other products bear ing tongue-twister names. All of these come mainly from the Amazon region and northeastern Brazil, except pyreth rum flowers which grow in Rio Grande do Sul. They're gathered for insecticides and vermifuges. It seems a far cry from a native fishing in an Amazon tributary to your Victory garden or war-boosted agricultural production. Yet timbd roots help both. Primitive people here long ago learned that if they put timb6 root in the water, presto! they needed only to pick up the fish! The Brazilian timb6 (Lonchocarpus nicou) con tains quantities of rotenone, a potent poison to cold-blooded animals. Commercially, rotenone is used as an insec ticide to combat pests and insects in vine yards, fruit orchards, and fields. It is also effective against parasites commonly found on livestock. Copaiba oil also was first utilized by the South American aborigines. They found that the oil, tapped from the trunk of this legumi nous tree growing from the Amazon to Rio, was an excellent healing balsam for sores. Early Portuguese colonists, convinced of its healing and antiseptic virtues, took it to Europe. Besides its use as an ingredient in medicinal preparations, the raw oil is now em ployed in the manufacture of varnishes and in photography. Into varnishes, paints, and enamels, too, go quantities of oiticica oil, expressed from the seeds of oiticica trees which thrive extensively in the States of Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, and Piaui. A quick-drying oil, oiticica fulfills much the same requirements as the widely known tung oil of China, whose sources are now barred by war. Babassu Palm Has Many Uses The musically named babassu palm of northern Brazil is behind, if not in, our world battle fronts. It is one of the most valuable palms of Brazilian flora. In its home dis-
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