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BRAZIL

Rio de Janeiro, is the second largest city in Brazil. Brazil is the largest country in South America it covers half the land area of that continent. The capital city of Brazil is Brasilia. The currency used in Brazil is called the real. The city of Rio de Janeiro is famous for its sunny beaches, its tourist resorts, and its Carnival. This huge festival goes on for four days. Just before the beginning of Lent, and is a major holiday in Brazil. During this time most business and stores are closed in the city. COFFEE IN BRAZIL: A coffee plantation in Brazil is called a fazenda.

Coffee is one of the worlds most popular beverages. It is made from the seeds of an evergreen shrub. Coffee is Brazils biggest export, and Brazil still produces most of the worlds coffee. Conditions for growing coffee are ideal in the south-east of Brazil. There is a hot, wet season between October and April, and fairly cool, dry season in the winter. The best flavoured coffee comes from bushes that are grown at about 750 metres in elevation. CULTIVATION OF COFFEE: Planting The young seedlings are grown from selected seed. The seed is sown in special nurseries where the temperature and water supply are carefully controlled. When they are about 18 months old, the seedlings are transferred to open ground. Tending The shrubs are allowed to grow to about 2 or 3 metres, then pruned to keep them at the height for easy harvesting. The ground is kept clear of weeds, and the plants are checked regularly for any signs of disease. The best coffee yields are from plants between 8 and 15 years old, but bushes go on producing for up to 30 years. A single bush yields between 4 and 5 kg (kilograms) a year.

Harvesting- Fragrant white flowers grow in clusters along the branches. Later the coffee fruits (cherries) turn from green to red as they ripen. They are picked by hand. The cherries are put into large water tanks to soften the fruit. Machines squeeze and wash the frits to separate the seeds (beans) from the pulp. Processing The beans are dried for about 10 days, Machines remove the outer husk, then the beans are graded. Tasters test the coffee for quality and classify it. The beans are bagged for shipment to other countries. Most of the coffee is used as a drink, but it has other uses too. The essence is used as a flavouring for various food products, and an oil can be extracted from the beans for use in soap, paints, insecticides, medicines and shoe-polish. The flowers yield a substance that is used in the making of perfume.

Brazil has rain forests. A tropical rainforest consists of very tall trees, woody vines and a profusion of flowers, ferns and mosses. The upper braches of the trees, many of which grow as tall as 60 metres, provide a canopy over the forest like an umbrella. The leaves of this canopy are so thick that direct sunlight never reaches many parts of the forest floor. Most of the food our nutrients that feed the rainforest are stored in the trees themselves. Dead leaves and wood decay quickly in the wet and humid climate. Trees rapidly take up the nutrients from the decayed material through their roots. The forests also act as a control on climate.

The trees are a vast source of water vapor which is released into the air, and falls as rain. We know that many rainforest plants are the source of useful medicines, and there may be many more than we dont even know yet. There are also a remarkable number of animal species in the rainforest monkeys and other mammals, frogs, turtles and snakes are abundant, and there are many thousands of different insects, butterflies, bats and birds. An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals within a particular physical environment of land, air and water. It is carefully balanced system that is easily destroyed. In many countries of Brazil the rainforest is being cut down for timber, and the vegetation is being burnt to make way for huge cattle ranches or for mining. The thin soil is rapidly destroyed when it is exposed to the heavy rains, and so too is the animal and plant life that was protected by the forest canopy.

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