Problems in Primary Production 
15] 
Fig. 114. Almost three quarters of the coffee used in the world is produced in Brazil. 
The rubber ports. The United States is the greatest consumer of 
South American rubber, as well as coffee. Hence we have a special 
interest in the cities of Par4 and Manaos, since they border on the 
great jungle of the Amazon in which wild rubber trees flourish. 
With a huge area back of it abundantly producing so valuable a 
product, it would seem that Pari should have more than 200,000 
inhabitants. But its development is slow because white men cannot 
stand its tropical diseases, great heat, and swarms of insects. 
Manaos seems at first glance to be an inland city, but like 
Montreal it is a seaport a thousand miles up a broad river. Manaos 
is naturally the great rubber gatherer of interior Brazil, for three of 
the largest tributaries of the Amazon join the main river near this 
port. 
43. Why does Para fail to rank among the chief South American ports? 
The coffee ports. We have already noticed that the coffee ports 
of Rio de Janeiro and Santos are among the five chief ports of the 
continent (page 147). 
14. Explain what conditions have influenced the growth of these cities. 
The grain and animal ports. The last group of ports is much the 
most important. It includes not only Montevideo, Buenos Aires,