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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 ofRio 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 afazenda.

Coffee is one of the worlds most popular beverages. It ismade from the seeds of an evergreen shrub.

Coffee is Brazils biggest export, and Brazil stilproduces 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 fromselected 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 tokeep 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.

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Harvesting- Fragrant white flowers grow in clusters along the branches. Later thecoffee 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 variousfood products, and an oil can be

extracted from the beans for use in soap, paints, insecticides, medicines and

shoe-polish.

Theflowersyield a substance that is used in the making ofperfume.

Brazil has rain forests. A tropicarainforest consists of very tall trees,

woody vines and a profusion of flowers

ferns and mosses.

The upper braches of the treesmany of which grow as tall as 60 metres,

provide a canopy over the forest like an

umbrella.

The leaves of this canopy are sothick that direct sunlight never reaches

many parts of the forest floor.

Most of the food our nutrients thatfeed the rainforest are stored in the trees

themselves.

Dead leaves and wood decayquickly in the wet and humid climate.

Trees rapidly take up the nutrientsfrom the decayed material through their

roots.

The forests also act as a control on climate.

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The trees are a vast source of water vapor which is released into the air, and falls asrain.

We know that many rainforest plants are the source of useful medicines, and theremay be many more than we dont even know yet.

There are also a remarkable number of animal species in the rainforest monkeysand other mammals, frogs, turtles and snakes are abundant, and there are manythousands of different insects, butterflies, bats and birds.

An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals within a particular physicalenvironment 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 isthe animal and plant life that was protected by the forest canopy.