Brazil: From a letter from JUMAHans Rosenthal (1919–1973) dated October 1, 1939: "I'm writing to you now, just to give you a brief update: about the fazenda, about work. Spring began a few days ago, and it’s slowly starting to get warmer again, following a rather cool and pleasant winter with temperatures as low as 0°C. Planting is already underway out in the fields. The first plantings are already complete, namely beans, rice, and corn. Over the next few days, cotton and the remaining beans, as well as corn and soybeans, will be planted. By the end of September, sowing is complete, and then the first harvests begin shortly thereafter.

Beans are grown as a cover crop between corn and cotton, and since they are a very fast-growing crop, you can even plant two crops of beans between corn. (From seed to harvest: 3 months). Rice staple crop that is grown without intercrops in soil that is as moist and as heavy as possible. Sowing is usually done using a planter, a single-row, and very primitive machine. The spacing for the rice is 50 x 50 cm in length and width. Corn is also planted using a planter at row spacing of 1 to 1.5 meters. Cotton is planted in the same way, but it is interesting to note that 10–50 seeds are planted in a single hole, which are later thinned down to two plants. The spacing for the cotton is 2:1 m, with 2 rows of corn planted as a cover crop. The only winter crops we grow are wheat and peas. Wheat takes a little over 3 months from sowing to harvest. Brazil is only now beginning to focus on grain cultivation. Peas aren't very profitable; people only grow small plots. You can also grow rye here. However, this is usually done only by German settlers, as it does not yield high returns. There are approximately 33,000 coffee trees on the fazenda. In Bra- zil the law prohibits the planting of new coffee trees, except on particularly fertile soil. This exception applies to Parana with its terra roxa. A lot of coffee is grown here. Coffee is usually planted in newly cleared land that has not yet borne any other fruit. The work goes something like this: Once the forest has been cleared and burned, work begins immediately on marking out the land and digging the coffee holes, which are 20 cm deep and spaced 5 meters apart in all directions. Put 6 coffee cherries in each hole; each cherry contains 2 beans. A pyramid of logs is built over each hole to protect the young plants in the early stages from the sun and adverse weather conditions. In about a year, the coffee bush will have grown so large that you’ll have to move the firewood aside and stack it around the small tree. A coffee tree consists of four individual plants. At two years old, the coffee tree produces its first flowers, and in its third year, though only if the soil was very clean, it yields its first crop. In the fourth and fifth years, the first major harvests take place, which continue to increase over the course of two to three years until the tree reaches a height of 4–5 meters. The carrying capacity of trees on good soil does not decline until after many decades.

They do not yet strictly adhere to a three-field system here, but they are already taking steps to keep the soil in good condition through crop rotation; fertilizer will likely not be necessary for the next 10 years. Since there are plenty of forest reserves here, they simply let the depleted soil grow over and clear new land. Of course, this isn't the norm, but it's done quite often.

I am working as an intern at KaphanHeinrich Kaphan (1893–1981) and plan to stay there for about a year to learn all the necessary tasks, from planting to harvest. Mr. Kaphan has taken full responsibility for my training and also intends to help me later on with clearing my land, which is about 4 km from here, as well as with setting up the fazenda. It’s a wonderful thought for me to maybe soon be living on my own property. We also received a rather positive letter from KAPHAN.It’s a shame that, apart from Juwa, there aren’t any other people from G.B.Gross-Breesen there. We haven't given up hope, though, that some more will come.