The History of Java, v. 1-2

CHAPTER III.

The island of Java is a great agricultural country; its soil is the grand source of its wealth. In its cultivation the inhabitants exert their chief industry, and upon its produce they rely, not only for their subsistence, but the few articles of foreign luxury or convenience which they purchase. The Javans are a nation of husbandmen, and exhibit that simple structure of society incident to such a stage of its progress. To the crop the mechanic looks immediately for his wages, the soldier for his pay, the magistrate for his salary, the priest for his stipend (or jákat), and the government for its tribute. The wealth of a province or village is measured by the extent and fertility of its land, its facilities for rice irrigation, and the number of its buffaloes.

When government wishes to raise supplies from particular districts, it does not enquire how many rupees or dollars it can yield in taxes, but what contribution of rice or maize it can furnish, and the impost is assessed accordingly: the officer of revenue becomes a surveyor of land or a measurer of produce, and the fruits of the harvest are brought immediately into the ways and means of the treasury. When a chief gives his assistance in the police or the magistracy, he is paid by so much village land, or the rent of so much land realized in produce; and a native prince has no other means of pensioning a favourite or rewarding a useful servant. "Be it known to the high officers of my palace, to my Bopátis (regents), and to my Mántris (petite noblesse)," says a Javan patent of nobility granted by Sultan Hamángku Búana, "that I have given this letter to my servant to raise him from the earth, bestowing upon him, for his subsistence, lands to the amount of eleven hundred cháchas, the labour of eleven hundred men." By the population returns, and by the number of leases granted under the late settlement, it appears, that sometimes there is not more than a tenth part of the inhabitants employed in any other branch of industry. Out of a population of 243,268 in the Priáng'en regencies, 209,125 are stated as employed in agriculture. In Surabáya, the proportion of householders who are cultivators, is to the rest of the inhabitants as 32,618 to 634; in Semárang, as 58,206 to 21,404; in Rembang it is as 103,230 to 55,300; and in other districts there are considerable variations: but it rarely happens, that the people employed in trade, in manufactures, in handicrafts, or other avocations, amount to a half of those engaged in agriculture, or a third of the whole population. The proportion, on an average, may be stated as three and a half or four to one. In England, it is well known, the ratio is reversed, its agricultural population being to its general population as one to three or two and a half. By the surveys lately made under the orders of the British government, we are enabled to describe the processes of Javan agriculture, and to state its results with more accuracy and in greater detail, than can be attained on many subjects of superior public interest. If we avail ourselves of these means pretty largely, it is not so much in the hope of increasing the stock of agricultural knowledge, as of assisting the reader to form an estimate of the character, habits, wants, and resources of the Javan.

The soil of Java, though in many parts much neglected, is remarkable for the abundance and variety of its productions. With very little care or exertion on the part of the cultivator, it yields all that the wants of the island demand, and is capable of supplying resources far above any thing that the indolence or ignorance of the people, either oppressed under the despotism of their own sovereigns, or harassed by the rapacity of strangers, have yet permitted them to enjoy. Lying under a tropical sun, it produces, as before observed, all the fruits of a tropical climate; while, in many districts, its mountains and eminences make up for the difference of latitude, and give it, though only a few degrees from the line, all the advantages of temperate regions. The bámbu, the cocoa-nut tree, the sugar-cane, the cotton tree, and the coffee plant, here flourish in the greatest luxuriance, and yield products of the best quality. Rice, the great staple of subsistence, covers the slopes of mountains and the low fields, and gives a return of thirty, forty, or fifty fold; while maize, or even wheat and rye, and the other plants of Europe, may be cultivated to advantage on high and inland situations. Such is the fertility of the soil, that in some places after yielding two, and sometimes three crops in the year, it is not necessary even to change the culture. Water, which is so much wanted, and which is seldom found in requisite abundance in tropical regions, here flows in the greatest plenty. The cultivator who has prepared his sáwah, or rice field, within its reach, diverts part of it from its channel, spreads it out into numerous canals of irrigation, and thus procures from it, under a scorching sun, the verdure of the rainy season, and in due time a plentiful harvest. Nothing can be conceived more beautiful to the eye, or more gratifying to the imagination, than the prospect of the rich variety of hill and dale, of rich plantations and fruit trees or forests, of natural streams and artificial currents, which presents itself to the eye in several of the eastern and middle provinces, at some distance from the coast. In some parts of Kedú, Banyumás, Semárang, Pasúruan, and Málang, it is difficult to say whether the admirer of landscape, or the cultivator of the ground, will be most gratified by the view. The whole country, as seen from mountains of considerable elevation, appears a rich, diversified, and well watered garden, animated with villages, interspersed with the most luxuriant fields, and covered with the freshest verdure.

Over far the greater part, seven-eighths of the island, the soil is either entirely neglected or badly cultivated, and the population scanty. It is by the produce of the remaining eighth that the whole of the nation is supported; and it is probable that, if it were all under cultivation, no area of land of the same extent, in any other quarter of the globe, could exceed it, either in quantity, variety, or value of its vegetable productions. The kind of husbandry in different districts (as shall be mentioned afterwards more particularly) depends upon the nature and elevation of the ground, and the facilities for natural or artificial irrigation. The best lands are those situated in the vallies of the higher districts, or on the slopes of mountains, and on the plains stretching from them, as such lands are continually enriched with accessions of new earth washed down from the hills by the periodical rains. The poorest soil is that found on the ranges of low hills, termed kéndang, extending along many districts, and particularly in the southern division of the island; but in no part is it so sterile or ungrateful, as not to afford a liberal return for the labour bestowed upon its cultivation, especially if a supply of water can be by any means directed upon it.

But when nature does much for a country, its inhabitants are sometimes contented to do little, and, satisfied with its common gifts, neglect to improve them into the means of dignity or comfort. The peasantry of Java, easily procuring the necessaries of life, seldom aim at improvement of their condition. Rice is the principal food of all classes of the people, and the great staple of their agriculture. Of this necessary article, it is calculated that a labourer can, in ordinary circumstances, earn from four to five kátis a day; and a káti being equivalent to one pound and a quarter avoirdupois, is reckoned a sufficient allowance for the daily subsistence of an adult in these regions. The labour of the women on Java is estimated almost as highly as that of the men, and thus a married couple can maintain eight or ten persons; and as a family seldom exceeds half that number, they have commonly half of their earnings applicable for the purchase of little comforts, for implements of agriculture, for clothing and lodging. The two last articles cannot be expensive in a country where the children generally go naked, and where the simplest structure possible is sufficient to afford the requisite protection against the elements.

The price of rice, which thus becomes of importance to the labourer, varies in different parts of the island, according to the fertility of the district where it is produced, its situation with regard to a market, or its distance from one of the numerous provincial capitals. As the means of transport, by which the abundance of one district might be conveyed to supply the deficiencies of another, and to equalize the distribution of the general stock, are few and laborious, this variation of price is sometimes very considerable: even in the same district there are great variations, according to the nature of the crop. In the Native Provinces, a píkul (weighing 133⅓ lbs. English) sometimes sells below the fourth part of a Spanish dollar, and at other times for more than two Spanish dollars; but in common years, and at an average over the whole island, including the capital, the estimate may be taken at thirty Spanish dollars the kóyan of thirty píkuls, or three thousand kútis. A kúti of rice, according to this estimate, may be sold to the consumer, after allowing a sufficient profit to the retail merchant, for much less than a penny.

But though the price of this common article of subsistence may be of some consequence to the Javan labourer, when he wants to make any purchase with his surplus portion, he is rendered independent of the fluctuations of the market for his necessary food, by the mode in which he procures it. He is generally the cultivator of the soil; and while he admits that law of custom, which assigns to the superior a certain share of the produce, he claims an equal right himself to the remainder, which is generally sufficient to support himself and his family: and he sometimes finds in this law of custom, sanctioned by the interest of both parties, a security in the possession of his lands, and a barrier against the arbitrary exactions of his chief, which could scarcely be expected under the capricious despotism of a Mahomedan government. In addition to this reserved share, he raises on his own account, if he is industrious, within what may be termed the cottage farm, all the vegetables, fruit, and poultry requisite for his own consumption. His wife invariably manufactures the slight articles of clothing, which, in such a climate, the common people are in the habit of wearing. What can be spared of the fruits of their joint industry from the supply of their immediate wants, is carried to market, and exchanged for a little salt fish, dried meat, or for other trifling comforts, hoarded as a store for the purchase of an ox or a buffalo, or expended in procuring materials for repairing the hut and mending the implements of husbandry.

The farming stock of the cultivator is as limited as his wants are few and his cottage inartificial: it usually consists of a pair of buffaloes or oxen, and a few rude implements of husbandry. There is a small proportion of sheep and goats on the island; but, with the exception of poultry, no kind of live stock is reared exclusively either for the butcher or the dairy. By the returns made in 1813 of the stock and cattle of the provinces under the British government, containing a population of nearly two millions and a half, it was found that there were only about five thousand sheep and twenty-four thousand goats. The number of buffaloes, by the same return, and in the same space, was stated at 402,054, and of oxen at 122,691. Horses abound in the island, but are principally employed about the capitals, and not in husbandry, further than in the transport of produce from one district to another.

The buffalo and ox are used for ploughing. The former is of a smaller size than the buffalo of Sumatra and the Peninsula, though larger than that of Bengal and of the islands lying eastward of Java. It is a strong tractable animal, capable of long and continued exertion, but it cannot bear the heat of the mid-day sun. It is shy of Europeans, but submits to be managed by the smallest child of the family in which it is domesticated. The buffalo is either black or white: the former is larger and generally considered superior. In the Súnda, or western and mountainous districts, nine out of ten are white, which is not at all the case in the low countries; no essential difference in the breed has been discovered to be connected with this remarkable distinction of colour. The usual price of a buffalo in the western districts is about twenty-four rupees for the black, and twenty rupees for the white; in the eastern districts the price varies from twelve to sixteen rupees. The Súnda term for a buffalo is múnding; the Javan, máisa and kébo: and in compliment to Laléan, the prince who is supposed to have introduced cultivation into the Súnda districts, that prince and his successors on the Súnda throne are distinguished by the appellation Múnding or Máisa. The name of the individual sovereigns enters into a compound with these general terms for the dynasty, and they are called Máisa-laléan, Múnding-sári, and so of others.

The ox of Java derives its origin from the Indian breed. Two varieties are common: that which is called the Javan ox has considerably degenerated; the other, which is termed the Bengal or Surat ox, is distinguished by a lump on the shoulder, and retains in his superior strength other traces of his origin. The bull after castration is used as a beast of burden, for the draught, and sometimes for the stall. Cows are chiefly employed in husbandry, and are particularly useful to the poorer class; but in the sáwah and the extensive inundated plantations of the low districts of the island, the superior bulk and strength of the buffalo is indispensable. Eastward of Pasúruan, however, the lands are ploughed by oxen and cows exclusively. The wild breed, termed bánténg, is found principally in the forests of that quarter and in Báli, although it occurs also in other parts; a remarkable change takes place in the appearance of this animal after castration, the colour in a few months invariably becoming red.

The cows on Java, as well as throughout the Archipelago, remarkably degenerate from those properties, for which, in a state of domestication, they are chiefly prized in other quarters of the world, and afford little or no milk beyond what is barely sufficient for the nourishment of the calf: but the draught ox does not partake of a similar change, and in the central and eastern districts, particularly where the pasture is good, becomes a strong active animal. The degenerate domestic cows are sometimes driven into the forests, to couple with the wild bánténg, for the sake of improving the breed. A single pair of oxen, or buffaloes, is found sufficient for the yoke both of the plough and harrow; and these form by far the most expensive part of the cultivator's stock. The price of a draught ox, in the central and eastern districts, in which they are more generally used in agriculture, varies from eight to sixteen rupees, or from twenty to forty shillings English, and a cow may be purchased for about the same price. Either from the luxuriance of the pasture, the greater care of the husbandmen, or a more equal climate, both the buffalo and the ox are usually in better condition on Java than in many parts of India: indeed, those miserable half-starved looking animals, with which some of the provinces of Bengal abound, are never seen in this island, except, perhaps, occasionally, in some of the few herds belonging to Europeans, in the vicinity of Batavia.

Buffaloes, however, more than other domestic animals, are subject to an epidemic disease, the symptoms and nature of which have not been hitherto carefully noted, or satisfactorily explained. It prevails throughout the whole island, and generally re-appears after an interval of three, four, or five years: it makes great ravages in the stock of the peasantry, and is checked in its progress by no remedies which have hitherto been discovered or applied: it is of an infectious nature, and excites great alarm when it appears: it bears different names in different parts of the island. As the bull and cow are not liable to this disease; and as, in addition to this advantage, they are less expensive in their original purchase, they are preferred by many of the natives.

For draught, the buffalo and cow are employed; and for burden, the horse (particularly mares) and the ox. In level districts, and in good roads, the use of the latter is preferred. The usual burden of a horse is rather less than three hundred weight, and that of an ox rather more than four; but in mountainous districts, and where the roads are neglected, one half of this weight is considered as a sufficient, if not an excessive load.

The comparatively higher price of cattle on Java than in Bengal has been accounted for from the demand for them as food, and the absence of extensive commons on which to feed them.

When implements of husbandry are mentioned in British agriculture, many expensive instruments, and complicated machinery suggest themselves to those acquainted with its practical details. From the preparation of the ground for receiving the seed, till the grain comes into the hands of the miller, labour is economized and produce increased, by many ingenious processes and artful contrivances, of which a Javan could form no conception. He could form no idea of the fabrication or advantages of our different kinds of ploughs; of our swing ploughs, our wheel ploughs, and our two-furrow ploughs; of our grubbers, cultivators, and other instruments for pulverizing the soil; of our threshing and winnowing machines, and other inventions. A plough of the simplest construction, a harrow, or rather rake, and sometimes a roller, with a páchul, or hoe, which answers the purpose of a spade; an árit, which serves as a knife or small hatchet; and the áni áni, a peculiar instrument used by the reapers, are all the implements employed by him in husbandry; and the total cost of the whole does not exceed three or four rupees, or from seven to ten shillings.

The plough (walúku), in general use for the irrigated land, consists of three parts, the body, beam, and handle. It is generally made of teak wood, where that material can be provided, or otherwise of the most durable that can be found: the yoke only is of bámbu. Simple as it is, it appears, both in its construction and durability, superior to the plough of Bengal, as described by Mr. Colebrooke, from which it differs, in having a board cut out of the piece which forms the body, for throwing the earth aside. The point of the body, or sock, is tipped with iron, which in some districts is cast for the purpose. There is another kind, of more simple construction, in use for dry and mountain cultivation: this is termed brújul, and consists of but two parts. Both kinds are so light, that when the ploughman has performed his morning's work, he throws the plough over his shoulder, and without feeling any inconvenience or fatigue, returns with it to his cottage. For gardens, and for small fields adjoining the villages, the small lúku chína, or Chinese plough, is used with one buffalo: the cost for a good plough seldom exceeds a rupee and a half. The harrow (gáru), which is rather a large rake having only a single rough row of teeth, costs about the same sum, and is in like manner made of teak where procurable; except the handle, beam, and yoke, which are of bámbu. When used, the person who guides it generally sits upon it, to give it the necessary pressure for levelling or pulverizing the soil.

The páchul is a large hoe, which in Java serves every purpose of the spade in Europe, and is consequently, next to the plough, the most important implement in Javan husbandry. The head is of wood tipped with iron; and the handle, which is about two feet and a half long, frequently has a slight curve, which renders it more convenient for use: its price is about half a rupee. The árit, or weeding knife, costs about eight pence; and the áni áni, with which the grain is reaped, about three pence. The latter is a small instrument of peculiar shape. The reaper holds it in a particular manner, and crops off with it each separate ear, along with a few inches of the straw. This mode of reaping has been immemorially practised and is universally followed. Some of the most intelligent people being questioned respecting the origin of this operose process, answered, that it was reported to have been established in ancient times as a s'lámat, or grateful acknowledgment for an abundant harvest; that when his field was covered with the bounty of Ceres, no reaper could refuse her this acknowledgment; and that the religious discharge of this obligation was guarded by the belief, that if he ceased to offer this tribute of his labour at the season of harvest, the field would not continue to yield him the same abundant return.

The lands are ploughed, harrowed, and weeded by the men, who also conduct the whole process of irrigation; but the labour of transplanting, reaping, and (where cattle are not used for the purpose) of transporting the different crops from the field to the village, or from the village to the market, devolves upon the women.

Besides the two general divisions of the year, marked out by nature in the great changes of the earth and the atmosphere, there are other periodical distinctions, depending on less obvious or more irregular phenomena. These variations have been ascertained by a reference to the course of the heavenly bodies, or the calculations of the wúku, which are described in another part of this work. It is the office of the village priest to keep this reckoning, and to apprize the cultivators when the term approaches for the commencement of the different operations of husbandry. Of these minor seasons of the year, the first, commencing after the rice harvest which falls in August or September, lasts forty-one days. During this season the leaves fall from the trees, vegetation is interrupted, and the only field labour performed is the burning of grass and vegetables, as a preparation of the tégal or gágas. In the second season, which lasts twenty-five days, vegetation again resumes its vigour. The third, which lasts twenty-four days, is considered the most proper for planting sweet potatoes, yams, and such other vegetables as usually form the second crop; the wild flowers of the forest are now in blossom; and the period of what is termed dry cultivation commences. The fourth, which lasts also twenty-four days, is the natural season for the pairing of wild animals: high winds now prevail, the rains descend, and the rivers begin to rise. During the fifth, which lasts twenty-six days, the implements of husbandry are prepared, and the water-courses examined and renewed: this is the commencement of the wet cultivation. In the sixth season the ploughing of the sáwahs and sowing of the bíbít for the great rice crop takes place: this season lasts forty-one days. In the seventh, which also lasts forty-one days, pári is transplanted into fields, and the courses of the water properly directed. In the eighth, which lasts twenty-six days, the plants shoot above the water and begin to blossom. In the ninth season, which consists of twenty-five days, the ears of the grain form. In the tenth, also consisting of twenty-five days, they ripen and turn yellow. The eleventh, which lasts twenty-six days, is the period for reaping; and in the twelfth, which consists of forty-one days, the harvest is completed, the produce gathered in, and that dry clear weather prevails, in which the days are the hottest and the nights the coldest of the whole year. The accurate assignment of the number of days by the natives themselves to the different operations of husbandry, affords such complete information on this interesting subject, that any further account would be superfluous. It may, however, be proper to observe, that the periods above described chiefly refer to the progress of the principal rice crop, as influenced by the annual rains; but there are many lands rendered quite independent of these rains, by the vicinity of streams which afford a plentiful supply of water at all times of the year. In many favoured situations, it is even common to observe at one view the rice fields in almost every stage of their cultivation; in one, women engaged in planting the newly prepared soil, and in another, the reapers employed in collecting the fruits of the harvest.

Lands in Java are classed under two general divisions; lands which are capable of being inundated directly from streams or rivers, and lands which are not so. The former are termed sáwah, the latter tégal or gága. It is on the sáwahs that the great rice cultivation is carried on; and these admit of a subdivision, according to the manner in which the land is irrigated. Those which can be irrigated at pleasure from adjacent springs or rivers, are considered as the proper sáwah; those which depend on the periodical rains for the whole or principal part of the water by which they are fertilized, are termed sáwah tádahan. The former are by far the most valuable, and lands of this description admit of two heavy crops annually, without regard to any particular time of the year: the fields seldom exceed forty or sixty feet in breadth, and the water is retained in them by means of a small embankment of about a foot in height. On the slopes of the mountains, where this mode of cultivation is chiefly found, these fields are carried gradually above each other in so many terraces, for the purpose of irrigation, the water admitted in the upper terrace inundating each of them in its descent. The tégal lands are appropriated to the culture of less important crops, such as the mountain rice, Indian corn, &c.

The vast superiority of the sáwah, or wet cultivation, over that of tégal, or dry, is shewn in their relative produce, and may be still further illustrated by a comparison of the rents which the two descriptions of land are calculated to afford. The quantity of tégal land, or land fit for maize, as compared with that of sáwah land, varies in different districts. In Chéribon, the tégal land, by the late survey, amounted only to 2,511, while the sáwan exceeded 16,000. In Tégal the proportions were even more widely varied, the number of jungs of the former to the latter being as 891 to 11,445. In Surabáya they were as 1,356 to 17,397; in Kedú and Besúki they were nearly equal, being respectively as 8,295 to 10,757, and as 6,369 to 7,862.

The succession of crops, next to the facility of irrigation, depends upon the quality of the soil, which in the native provinces is divided by the cultivators into three principal kinds, tána ládu, tána línchad, and tána pásir. The first is the best, consisting of rich vegetable mould, and a certain proportion of sand, and exists chiefly near the banks of large rivers; the second is almost pure clay, and is found in the central plains; and the third is alluvial, and covers the maritime districts. The term pádas péréng is applied to the oblique tracts enriched with a fertile mould, which form the acclivities of hills, and from which the water readily disappears. Tána ládu will bear a constant succession of crops. Tána línchad yields only a single annual crop of rice: during the rainy season the soil constitutes a stiff mud, in which the plants find the requisite moisture and display all their luxuriance; when it is afterwards exposed to the rays of the sun, it bursts into extensive fissures, which admitting the scorching heat by which they were produced, become detrimental to every species of vegetation.

Besides the annual crop of rice which is raised on the sáwah lands, a variety of plants are raised upon them as a second or light crop within the same year. Among these are several species of káchang or bean, the cotton plant, the indigo, and a variety of cucumbers, &c. But the more generally useful and profitable vegetables require nearly the same period as the rice, and only yield their increase once in a season: they mostly grow in situations, on which the supply of water can be regulated, and a continued inundation prevented. Among the most important are the gúdé, káchang pénden, or káchang chína, káchang íju, kédéle, jágung or Indian corn, jágung chántel, jáwa-wút, jáli, wíjen, járak or palma christi, térong, and kéntang jáwa.

In tégal lands of high situations a particular method of planting is sometimes practiced, which produces a result similar to a succession of crops. Together with the rice are deposited the seeds of other vegetables, which arrive at maturity at different periods, chiefly after the rice harvest. The most common and useful among these is cotton; and, in some tracts, great quantities of this valuable product is thus obtained, without any exclusive allotment of the soil. Next to this are various leguminous and other plants, which do not interfere with the rice. No less than six or eight kinds of vegetables are sometimes in this manner seen to shoot up promiscuously in a single field.

Rice, however, as has been repeatedly observed, is the grand staple of Javan, as well as Indian cultivation, and to this every other species of husbandry is subordinate. The adjacent islands and states of Sumatra, Malacca, Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas, have always in a great measure depended on the Javan cultivator for their supply, and the Dutch were in the habit of transporting an annual quantity of between six and eight thousand tons to Ceylon, to Coromandel, to the Cape, and their other settlements. Even at the low rate at which it generally sells, a revenue of near four million of rupees, or about half a million sterling, has been estimated as the government portion of its annual produce.

According to the modes of cultivation by which it has been reared, this grain is called pári sáwah, or pári gága; corresponding, with some exceptions, to the pádi sáwah, and pádi ládang of Sumatra. In the western, and particularly the Súnda districts, the term gága is changed for típar, the term gága, in these districts, being only occasionally applied to the grain which is cultivated on newly cleared mountainous spots.

The lowland and the mountain rice, or more correctly speaking, the rice raised in dry lands and the rice raised in lands subjected to inundation, are varieties of the same species (the oriza sativa of Linnæus) although both of them are permanent: but the rice planted on the mountainous or dry ground does not thrive on irrigated lands; nor, on the contrary, does the sáwah rice succeed on lands beyond the reach of irrigation. The mountain rice is supposed to contain in the same bulk more nourishment than the other, and is more palatable; but its use is limited to the less populous districts of the island, the greater proportion of the inhabitants depending exclusively on the produce of the sáwahs, or wet cultivation, for their support.

Stavorinus asserts, that the mountain rice is not so good as that of the low lands. Mr. Marsden informs us, on the contrary, that the former brings the higher price, and is considered of superior quality, being whiter, heartier, and better flavoured grain, keeping better, and increasing more in boiling. "The rice of the low lands," he says, "is more prolific from the seed, and subject to less risk in the culture; and on these accounts, rather than from its superior quality, is in more common use than the former." In general, the weightiest and whitest grain is preferred; a preference mentioned by Bontius, who includes in the character of the best rice its whiteness, its clearness of colour, and its preponderating weight, bulk for bulk. Dr. Horsfield conceives that Stavorinus formed his opinion in the low northern maritime districts of Java, and Mr. Marsden from a more extensive observation. Many intelligent natives state, that they prefer the mountain rice when they can procure it, on account of its whiteness, strength, and flavour; and that they are only limited in its use, by the impossibility of raising as much of it as can satisfy the general demand, all the mountain or dry rice not being sufficient to feed one-tenth of the population. In less populous countries, as in many parts of Sumatra, the inhabitants can easily subsist the whole of their numbers exclusively on mountain rice, or that produced on ládangs, which are fields reclaimed from ancient forests for the first time, and from which only one crop is demanded. The grain here, as in the mountain rice of Java, is highly flavoured and nutritious; but in countries where the population is crowded, where a scanty crop will not suffice, and where a continued supply of new land cannot be obtained, the peasantry must apply their labour to such grounds as admit of uninterrupted cultivation, and renew their annual fertility by periodical inundations, even although the produce is not so highly prized.

In the sáwahs of Java the fields are previously ploughed, inundated, and laboured by animals and hoeing, until the mould is converted into a semifluid mire: they then are considered fit to receive the young plants. No manure is ever used. Oil-cakes (búngkil), which are by some writers supposed to be used for this purpose generally, are only employed in the gardens about Batavia. One of the chief characteristics of the soil on Java, is an exemption from the necessity of requiring manure: on the sáwah lands, the annual inundation of the land is sufficient to renovate its vigour, and to permit constant cropping for a succession of years, without any observable impoverishment.

In the cultivation of the sáwahs, the plants are uniformly transplanted or removed from their first situation. In those of tégal or gága, they grow to maturity on the same spot where the seed was originally deposited, whether this be on high mountainous districts, or on low lands, the distinction of sáwah and gága depending exclusively not upon the situation of the field, but in the mode of culture, whether wet or dry.

In raising rice in the sáwahs, inundation is indispensable till it is nearly ripe. The seed is first sown on a bed prepared for the purpose, about one month before the season for transplanting it, and the plant is during that time termed bíbit. Two methods are in use. According to the first, called úrit, the ears of pári are carefully disposed on the soft mud of the seed bed; in the second, called ng'éber, the separated seeds are thrown after the manner of broadcast in Europe. In by far the greatest portions of the island, the ground is prepared, the seed sown, and the plant removed, during the course of the rainy season, or between the months of November and March. In situations where a constant supply of water can be obtained from springs, rivulets, or rivers, two crops are produced in the course of twelve or fourteen months; but the advantage of double cropping, which exhausts the soil without allowing it time to recover, has been considered as very questionable. If in some situations commanding a supply of water, the earth is allowed to rest after the preceding harvest, during the latter end of the rainy season, and the transplantation made in the months of June and July, it generally yields more profitable crops than the common method of working the sáwah. This, which is termed gádu by the natives, has been recommended by the experience of European planters.

Irrigation is exclusively effected by conducting the water of rivers and rivulets from the more or less elevated spots in the vicinity, and in this respect, differs materially in its process from that of Bengal, for although considerable labour and ingenuity are exercised in detaining, regulating, and distributing the supply, by means of dams, called bandáng'ans, no machinery whatever is employed in raising water for agricultural purposes in any part of the island.

The rice grown on sáwahs, is of two kinds, pári génja and pári dálam. In the former, the harvest takes place four months after the transplantation; in the latter, six months. Pári génja having the advantage of a quicker growth, is therefore often planted when the rainy season is far advanced. Pári dálam is more prolific, and yields a grain of superior quality, comprising those varieties in which the ears are longer and more compound. The varieties of each kind are distinct and permanent.

The subvarieties are very numerous, amounting, with those of kétan, to more than a hundred. Kétan is a distinct variety, with very glutinous seeds, seldom employed as an article of food, except in confections, cakes, and the like. Of the varieties of the pári génsha, mentik and anchar bántap are preferred. Of the pári dálam, those of krentúlan and súka nándi are most esteemed, being remarkably well flavoured and fit for keeping. S'lámat jáwa yields also rice of good quality. The bearded kinds of pári are always preferred for keeping, as the grains do not readily fall off. Near Súra-kérta, the principal native capital, close to the site of the former capital Kérta-súra, there is a peculiar tract inundated by water from a fountain at Píng'gíng, which is said to produce a grain of very superior flavour, from which the table of the Susuhúnan is supplied. Súka nándi is the kind uniformly preferred for these plantations.

For pári gága, whether in high or low situations, the ground is prepared by ploughing and harrowing, and the seed is planted after the manner called setting in some parts of England. The holes are made by pointed sticks, called pónchos, and into each hole two seeds are thrown. Only careless husbandmen, or those who cannot procure the requisite assistance in their labour, sow by broadcast. In high situations the earth is prepared before the rains commence: the seed is sown in the months of September or October, and the harvest takes place in January and February following. Gágas of low situations are planted about a month after the harvest of the sáwah is got in, and frequently receive temporary supplies of water from a neighbouring rivulet. In high situations, to which water cannot be carried, they are sufficiently moistened by the first rains of the season. During their growth, they receive several hoeings from the careful husbandman.

As the grain ripens, an elevated shed is frequently erected in the centre of a plantation, within which a child on the watch touches, from time to time, a series of cords extending from the shed to the extremities of the field, like the radii of a circle, and by this cheap contrivance, and an occasional shout, prevents the ravages of birds, which would otherwise prove highly injurious to the crops. These little elevated sheds in the interior, and particularly in the district of Bányumás, are very neatly constructed of matting.

The reapers are uniformly paid, by receiving a portion of the crop which they have reaped: this varies in different parts of the island, from the sixth to the eighth part, depending on the abundance or scarcity of hands; when the harvest is general through a district, one-fifth or one-fourth is demanded by the reaper. In opposition to so exorbitant a claim, the influence of the great is sometimes exerted, and the labourer is obliged to be content with a tenth or a twelfth.

The grain is separated from the husk by pounding several times repeated. The first operation is generally performed in wooden troughs, in the villages near which it grows, and before it is brought to market. The pári being thus converted into bras or rice, afterwards receives repeated poundings, according to the condition or taste of the consumer.

With the exception of the rice raised in sáwahs, all other produce is cultivated on dry grounds, either on the sáwah fields during the dry season, or on tégal land, at all times exclusively appropriated to dry cultivation. The principal article next to rice, as affording food to man, is maize or Indian corn, termed jágung. It is general in every district of Java, but is more particularly an object of attention on Madúra, where, for want of mountain streams, the lands do not in general admit of irrigation. In the more populous parts of Java, likewise, where the sáwahs do not afford a sufficient supply of rice, the inhabitants have lately had recourse to the cultivation of maize. It is now rapidly increasing in those low ranges of hills, which, on account of the poverty of the soil, had hitherto been neglected, and is becoming more and more a favourite article of food. In the more eastern districts, it is procured from the inhabitants of Madúra in exchange for rice. It is generally roasted in the ear, and in that state is exposed while hot for public sale; but it is never reduced to flour, or stored for any considerable time.

The zea maize, or common jágung, is a hardy plant, and grows on any soil. In common with every other production of Java it thrives there most luxuriantly; nor is there any reason to believe, that the Javan soil is less adapted to it than that of Spanish America, where Humboldt estimates its produce at a hundred and fifty fold. It is planted in fertile low lands in rotation with rice, and in high situations without intermission, often forming in the latter the chief, if not the only, support of the inhabitants. There are three different kinds, distinguished from each other by their respective periods of ripening. The first kind requires seven months, and is a large rich grain; the second takes only three, and is of inferior quality; and the third, which seems valuable only on account of its rapid growth, ripens in forty days, but has a poor small grain. They may be planted at all seasons of the year; and of the two inferior kinds, several crops are often raised from the same ground within the year.

Of other cerealia, the jágung chántel is raised very partially in particular districts, at no great distance from the capitals of the interior, and mostly for the purpose of preparing from it, by fermentation, a liquor sometimes drunk by the natives; as a general article of food it cannot be enumerated. The jáwa-wút and jáli are still more confined in their use; although the natives have a tradition, that on the first arrival of the Indian colonists on Java, the former was the only grain found on the island: it yields a pleasant pulp, and is made into several articles of confectionary. As a principal article of food, or a substitute for rice, Indian corn can alone be considered.

In times of scarcity, the natives make use of various kinds of the plantain (musa), also the yam (ubi of the Malays, and uwi of the Javans), the sweet potatoe, katélo (convolvulus batatas), the varieties of which are described in one of the early volumes of the Batavian Transactions, and a number of leguminous vegetables, the various kinds of beans (káchang), together with a species of grass with minute yellow seeds, called túton, which in ancient times is said to have formed a principal article of food, and the dried leaves of some other plants; but, happily, these times seldom occur, and the use of the jágung chántel and jáwa-wút, as well as of the various roots and leguminous vegetables to which I have alluded, is too limited to produce any sensible effects on the inhabitants. Those natives who make use of the Indian corn exclusively, inhabit the highest districts, where the purity of the atmosphere counteracts any injury which their health might otherwise sustain from the want of rice.

From the áren (sagurus rumphii), which grows abundantly in many parts of Java, a substance is prepared, similar in all respects to the true sago of the Eastern Islands. It is particularly useful in times of scarcity, when large numbers of these valuable trees are felled, for the purpose of collecting the pith. The sap yields an excellent sugar of a dark colour, in common use with the natives. The wine or túwak (toddy) prepared from it is superior to that obtained from most other palms.

A very agreeable pulp is prepared from the pith of this tree, pounded with water, and exposed one night to spontaneous evaporation: it is eaten with palm sugar, and found by no means unpleasant by Europeans. The tuberous roots of a species of curcuma, tému láwak, grated and infused in water, yields a similar pulp. Both are denominated pátí, and daily offered for sale along the roads and in the interior.

All the varieties of the cocoa-tree, noticed on Sumatra, are to be found on Java, where its quicker and more luxuriant growth is accounted for by the superiority of soil. The principal varieties of the cocoa-nut are enumerated in one of the early volumes of the Batavian Transactions.

Of the oil-giving plants there are many. The káchang góring of the Malay countries, or, as it is indifferently termed by the Javans, káchang chína, pénden, or tána, is cultivated almost exclusively for the purpose of obtaining its oil, near the capitals of the principal districts, both central and maritime. It requires a very strong soil for its support, and as the cultivation is profitable, the lands which produce it yield high rents. It is never employed as an article of food by itself; but what remains of it after the oil is expressed, forms an ingredient for the seasoning of rice, in one of the common dishes of the natives. The oil is obtained by grinding the seeds between two grooved cylinders, and then separating it either by expression or boiling. The former is chiefly used by the Chinese, and yields as a refuse the oil-cakes, which I formerly observed were employed as manure in some of the gardens near Batavia. Where these cylinders are not in use, the following mode is adopted: the nut having been taken from the ground, is dried by exposure to the sun for a few days; after which the kernel is extracted, and reduced, by successive beatings in the Javan lésung or mortar, to a grain sufficiently small to pass through a sieve; it is then boiled by steam, and having been allowed to cool for twenty-four hours, is put into a basket, and in that state placed between two oblong planks, which, being joined together at one extremity, are forced to meet at the other, on the principle of a lemon-squeezer. The oil exuding from the interstices of the basket is caught on an ox's hide, placed below to convey it to an earthen receiver.

The járak, or palma christi, is cultivated in nearly the same manner as maize, and thrives on similar soils: from this plant is obtained most of the oil for burning in lamps. In extracting the oil from this as well as from the cocoa-nut, various processes are employed, most of which tend to accelerate the rancidity of the oil. A pure cold drawn oil is not known. In the cocoa-nut, if the oil is obtained by expression, the broken nuts from which it is made are exposed till putrefaction commences. In other cases they are grated, and water being poured upon them, the parts mixed with it form sánten, a white milky fluid, which is evaporated till the oil alone remains. As this process requires much time and fuel, a more economical method is often resorted to: the milky fluid is left exposed for a night, when the oily parts rise to the top, and being separated from the water are purified by a very short boiling.

Of the sugar-cane, or according to the native term, tébu (the name by which it is designated, not only on Java, but throughout the Archipelago), there are several varieties. The dark purple cane, which displays the greatest luxuriance, and shoots to the length of ten feet, is the most highly prized. By the Javans the sugar-cane is only cultivated to be eaten in an unprepared state, as a nourishing sweetmeat. They are unacquainted with any artificial method of expressing from it the saccharine juice, and, consequently, with the first material part of the process by which it is manufactured into sugar. Satisfied with the nourishment or gratification which they procure from the plant as nature presents it, they leave the complicated process to be conducted exclusively by the Chinese.

The cane, as in the West Indies, is propagated by cuttings of about a foot and a half long, which are inserted in the ground in an upright direction, previously to the setting in of the rains. The Chinese occasionally use oil-cake for enriching the lands; but where the plant is only raised for consumption in its fresh state, no manure whatever is thought requisite; and a good soil, without such preparation, will yield three or four crops in succession.

The cane is extensively cultivated for the juice in the vicinity of Batavia, where there are numerous manufactories, principally owned by the Chinese. It is also cultivated for this purpose in considerable tracts at Júpara and Pasúruan, and partially in other districts of the eastern provinces, where mills are established for expressing it. Previous to the disturbances in Chéribon, sugar likewise was manufactured in that district in considerable quantities, and furnished an important article of export.

The coffee-plant, which is only known on Java by its European appellation, and its intimate connexion with European despotism, was first introduced by the Dutch early in the eighteenth century, and has since formed one of the articles of their exclusive monopoly. The labour by which it is planted, and its produce collected, is included among the oppressions or forced services of the natives, and the delivery of it into the government stores, among the forced deliveries at inadequate rates. Previously to the year 1808, the cultivation of coffee was principally confined to the Súnda districts. There were but comparatively few plantations in the eastern districts, and the produce which they were capable of yielding did not amount to one-tenth part of the whole; but, under the administration of Marshal Daendels, this shrub usurped the soil destined for yielding the subsistence of the people; every other kind of cultivation was made subservient to it, and the withering effects of a government monopoly extended their influence indiscriminately throughout every province of the Island.

In the Súnda districts, each family was obliged to take care of one thousand coffee plants; and in the eastern districts, where new and extensive plantations were now to be formed, on soils and in situations in many instances by no means favourable to the cultivation, five hundred plants was the prescribed allotment. No negligence could be practised in the execution of this duty: the whole operations of planting, cleaning, and collecting, continued to be conducted under the immediate superintendance of European officers, who selected the spot on which new gardens were to be laid out, took care that they were preserved from weeds and rank grass, and received the produce into store when gathered.

A black mould intermixed with sand, is considered the best soil for the coffee plant. In selecting a situation for the gardens, the steep declivities of mountains, where the plant would be endangered either by the too powerful heat of the sun or an entire want of it, or where torrents in the rainy season might wash away the rich earth necessary for its growth, are avoided. The best situation for them is usually considered to be in the vales along the foot of the high mountains, or on the gentle declivities of the low range of hills, with which the principal mountains are usually skirted; and it is found that, cæteris paribus, the greater is the elevation of the garden, the longer is the period of its productiveness, and the finer is the berry.

Having selected a proper spot for the garden, the first operation is to clear the ground of trees, shrubs, and the rank grass or reeds, the latter of which, termed galúga, are often found in these situations, and generally indicate a rich soil. In clearing the ground, it is the practise to collect together into heaps, and burn the trees, roots, and other rubbish found on it, the ashes of which serve to enrich the soil: when the trees are very large, the heavy labour of rooting them up is avoided, and the trunks being cut about five feet from the ground, are left in that state to rot, and in their gradual decay still further to enrich the land. As soon as the ground is thus cleared, it is levelled by three or four ploughings at short intervals, and laid out to receive the plants. A fence is planted round them, about twelve feet from their outer row, generally of the júrak, or palma christi, intermixed with either the dádap, or the silk cotton tree; and, in low situations, outside of this a ditch is dug to carry off the water. These operations commence in August or September, and by the time the ground is in perfect readiness for planting, the heavy rains are nearly over. It then only remains to select the young plants, and prepare the dádap which is intended to shade them.

Of the dádap tree there are three kinds; the seráp, dóri, and wáru: but the first is preferred on account of the greater shade it affords. It is propagated by cuttings, and in selecting them for the coffee plantations, care is had that they are taken from trees at least two or three years old, and that they be three or four feet long, of which one foot at least must be buried in the ground. After the dádaps are planted, holes are dug, from a foot and a half to two feet deep, for the reception of the coffee plant, which is then removed from the seed place or nursery, and transplanted into the gardens.

In coffee gardens of four or five years old, are found quantities of young plants, that have sprung up spontaneously from the ripe berries dropping off the trees, and when these can be obtained about fourteen inches long, of a strong healthy stem, large leaves, and without branches, they are preferred to others: but as the plants thus procured are seldom found in sufficient quantities, nurseries for rearing them are formed as follows: When the berries are allowed to remain on the shrub after maturity, they become black and dry: in this state they are plucked, and sown in seed beds lightly covered with earth: as soon as two small leaves appear, the plants are taken from the bed, and transplanted, about a foot asunder, under the cover of sheds prepared for that purpose; in about eighteen months, these plants are fit for removing into the garden or plantation where they are destined to yield their fruit. In taking the young plant up, the greatest care is necessary not to injure the roots, especially the tap root, and with this view it is generally removed with as much earth attached to it as possible. This precaution has the additional advantage of not too suddenly bringing the plant in contact with a new soil.

The plantations are generally laid out in squares. The distance between each plant varies according to the fertility of the soil: in a soil not considered fertile, a distance of six feet is preserved, and in each interval is a dádap tree for the purpose of affording shade; but in a rich soil, where the plant grows more luxuriantly, fewer dádaps are necessary, and the plants are placed at a greater distance from each other.

On Java a certain degree of shade seems necessary to the health of the coffee-plant, especially in low situations and during its early age; and the dádap is found better calculated for affording this protection than any other shrub in the country. It is a common saying, that where the dádap flourishes, there also will flourish the coffee: but they are not always constant or necessary companions; for in high lands many of the most flourishing gardens are to be observed with very few dádaps. The coffee tree yields fruit for a period of twenty years, yet in the low lands it seldom attains a greater age than nine or ten years (during six or seven of which only it may be said to bear), and the fruit is comparatively large and tasteless.

About the end of the rainy season, such coffee plants and dádaps as have not thriven are replaced by others, and the plantations cleaned: this latter operation, in gardens well kept, is generally performed three or four times in the year: but the tree is never cut or pruned, and is universally allowed to grow in all its native luxuriance. In this state, it often in favoured situations attains the height of sixteen feet, and plants of not less than eight inches broad have frequently been procured from the trunk. The general average produce of a coffee-tree is not estimated at much more than a káti, or a pound and a quarter English, notwithstanding some yield from twenty to thirty kátis.

There does not appear to be any fixed or certain season for the coffee to arrive at maturity. In the Súnda districts the gathering usually commences in June or July, and it is not till April that the whole crop is delivered into store. The season, however, generally gives what is termed three crops; of which the first is but small, the second the most abundant, and the third, being what is left to ripen, may be considered rather as a gleaning. When the berries become of a dark crimson colour, they are plucked one by one, with the assistance of a light bámbu ladder or stage, great care being taken not to shake off the blossoms which are still on the tree, or to pluck the unripe fruit. The women and children usually collect the crop, while the husband is elsewhere engaged in harder labour. Attached to every principal village, near which there are coffee plantations of any extent, there is a drying-house, to which the newly gathered coffee is brought: it is there placed on hurdles, about four feet from the floor, under which a slow wood fire is kept up during the night. The roof of the drying-house is opened in the mornings and evenings, to admit the air, and the berries are frequently stirred to prevent fermentation. As the heat of the sun is considered prejudicial, the roof of the house is closed during the day. This operation is repeated till the husk is quite dry. The berries dried in this way are small, and of a sea green or greyish colour, and are supposed to acquire a peculiar flavour from the smoke, although it does not appear that any particular kind of wood is used for fuel. When dried in the sun, the bean becomes of a pale bleached colour, is larger, specifically lighter, and more insipid to the taste than the former. The most common mode of freeing the bean from the husk is, to pound the berries when dry in a bag of buffalo's hide, great care being taken not to bruise the bean. A mill of simple construction is sometimes used, but is not found to answer so well. The coffee being then separated from the husk, is put into bags or baskets, and kept on raised platforms till the season of delivery, when it is carried down to the storehouse, sometimes by men, but generally on the backs of buffaloes and mares, in strings of fifteen hundred or two thousand at a time.

In the Súnda districts there have been, for many years past, three principal depôts for receiving the coffee from the cultivators; viz. at Buitenzorg, Chikàn, and Karang-sámbang. From Buitenzorg it is either sent direct to Batavia by land in carts, or by the way of Linkong, whence it is forwarded in boats by the river Chi-dáni. From Chikàn the coffee is sent in boats down the river Chi-táram, and thence along the sea-coast to Batavia. From Karang-sámbang it is sent down the river Chi-mánok to Indra-máyu, where it is received into extensive warehouses, and whence it is now generally exported for the European market.

Under this system, the Súnda districts were estimated to afford an annual produce of one hundred thousand píkuls of one hundred and thirty-three pounds and a quarter each, and it was calculated that the young plantations in the eastern districts, when they should come into bearing, would produce an equal quantity; but in this latter quarter, many of the gardens had been fixed on ill-judged spots, and the inhabitants were averse to the new and additional burden which this cultivation imposed upon their labour. Had the system, therefore, even been persevered in, and enforced by a despotic authority, it is questionable, whether the quantity anticipated in the above estimate, or even one half of it, would have been obtained from the eastern districts. The Súndas living in an inland and mountainous country, and having been long accustomed to the hardship of the coffee culture, are less sensible of its pressure than the rest of their countrymen: time and habit have reconciled them to what was at first revolting, and what must always be considered as unjust; their modes of life, their arts, their domestic economy, and other social habits, have all adapted themselves to a species of labour, which was at first forced upon them; and a state of servitude, which the philosopher would lament as a degradation, is scarcely felt to be a grievance by them. Instances, however, are not wanting, in which the usual measure of exaction having been surpassed, they have been awakened to a sense of their wretchedness. A government of colonial monopolists, eager only for profit, and heedless of the sources from which it was derived, sometimes subjected its native subjects to distresses and privations, the recital of which would shock the ear of humanity. Suffice it to say, that the coffee culture in the Súnda districts has sometimes been so severely exacted, that together with the other constant and heavy demands made by the European authority on the labour of the country, they deprived the unfortunate peasants of the time necessary to rear food for their support. Many have thus perished by famine, while others have fled to the crags of the mountains, where raising a scanty subsistence in patches of gánga, or oftener dependent for it upon the roots of the forest, they congratulated themselves on their escape from the reach of their oppressors. Many of these people, with their descendants, remain in these haunts to the present time: in their annual migrations from hill to hill, they frequently pass over the richest lands, which still remain uncultivated and invite their return; but they prefer their wild independence and precarious subsistence, to the horrors of being again subjected to forced services and forced deliveries at inadequate rates.

It is difficult to say what was the recompense received by the cultivator previous to the year 1808. The complicated system of accounts which then prevailed, seemed only calculated to blind the government, and to allow the European commissary to derive an income of from eighty to one hundred thousand dollars (25,000l. per annum), at the expence of the authorities by whom he was employed, and the natives whom he oppressed. This, in common with most of the establishments on the island, underwent a revision in the time of Marshal Daendels; and it was then directed, that the cultivators should receive on delivery at the storehouses, three rix-dollars copper for each mountain píkul of two hundred and twenty-five pounds Dutch, being little more than one dollar per hundred weight, or one half-penny per pound. This same coffee was sometimes sold at Batavia, within fifty miles of the spot where it was raised, at twenty Spanish dollars the hundred weight, and has seldom been known to bring in the European market less than eleven pence the pound. This, however, was deemed a liberal payment by the Dutch, though in some cases it had been transported over sixty miles of an almost impassable country, where two men are required to carry a hundred-weight of coffee, on their shoulders, at an expence of labour which one would suppose at least equal to this remuneration.

Under the administration of the British government, the free cultivation of coffee, in common with that of all other articles, was permitted to the inhabitants of Bantam, Chéribon, and all the eastern districts; and at the time when the island was again ceded to the Dutch, arrangements were in progress for extending the same provision throughout the Súnda districts, under a conviction, that the quantity produced would not be less under a system of free cultivation and free trade, than under a system in which it was found necessary, as one of the first acts of European authority, to compel the native princes to direct "the total annihilation of the coffee culture within their dominions," and to secure by treaty with them the destruction and confiscation of all coffee found in the hands of the natives[46]. A considerable portion of the peasantry, as already observed, have long been accustomed to the cultivation, and it is owing to their skill and experience, as much as to any direct superintendence or interference of the European officers (who generally derive their information from the native chiefs, and have little more to do, than occasionally to ride through the garden with a pompous suite, keep the accounts, and examine the coffee as it is received), that the coffee has so long been furnished for the European market; the experience obtained in the eastern districts, during the last three years, proves at least that coercive measures are unnecessary. There are many parts of Java, particularly the Príang'en regencies, where the soil is peculiarly and eminently adapted to the cultivation; and although it is difficult yet awhile to fix the exact rate at which the coffee might be produced under a free system, it may be calculated to be raised for exportation at about forty shillings per hundred weight.

Of the quality of the Javan coffee, in comparison with that of other countries, it may be observed, that during the last years, it has invariably maintained its price in the European market in competition with that of Bourbon, and rather exceeded it, both of them being higher than the produce of the West Indies. During the last years of the British administration on Java, and after the opening of the European market again afforded a demand, about eleven millions of young coffee shrubs were planted out in new gardens.

Pepper, which at one time formed the principal export from Java, has for some time ceased to be cultivated to any considerable extent. It was principally raised in Bantam, and the dependencies of that province in the southern part of Sumatra; and in the flourishing state of the monopoly, these districts furnished the Dutch with the chief supply for the European market.

But the system by which it was procured was too oppressive and unprincipled in its nature, and too impolitic in its provisions, to admit of long duration. It was calculated to destroy the energies of the country, and with them, the source from whence the fruits of this monopoly proceeded. In the year 1811, accordingly, neither Bantam nor its dependencies furnished the European government with one pound of this article.

That pepper may be produced on Java, and supplied at a rate equally moderate with that at which other productions requiring similar care are furnished, cannot admit of a doubt, and this reasonable price may be estimated at about six or seven Spanish dollars (thirty to thirty-five shillings) the píkul. The plant grows luxuriantly in most soils, and when once reared requires infinitely less care and labour than coffee. The cultivation of it on Sumatra and Prince of Wales' Island having been so accurately and minutely described by Mr. Marsden and Dr. Hunter, it would be unnecessary here to detail the system followed on Java, as it is in most points the same. The only peculiarity regarding it which may deserve notice is, that on this island the plant is allowed to grow to a much greater size, entwining itself round the cotton trees, frequently to the height of fifty and sixty feet.

Indigo, called tom by the Javans, and by the Súndas tárum, is general, and raised in most parts of the island. The indigo prepared by the natives is of an indifferent quality, and in a semifluid state, and contains much quick-lime; but that prepared by Europeans is of very superior quality.

An inferior variety, denominated tom-ménir, having smaller seeds, and being of quicker growth, is usually planted as a second crop in sáwahs, on which one rice crop has been raised. In these situations, the plant rises to the height of about three feet and a half. It is then cut, and the cuttings are repeated three, or even four times, till the ground is again required for the annual rice crop. But the superior plant, when cultivated on tégal lands, and on a naturally rich soil, not impoverished by a previous heavy crop, rises in height above five feet, and grows with the greatest luxuriance. The plants intended for seeds are raised in favoured spots on the ridges of the rice fields in the neighbourhood of the villages, and the seed of one district is frequently exchanged for that of another. That of the rich mountainous districts being esteemed of best quality, is occasionally introduced into the low lands, and is thought necessary to prevent that degeneration, which would be the consequence of cultivating for a long time the same plant upon the same soil. In the province of Matárem, where indigo is most extensively cultivated, it is sold in the market in bundles, as low as eight-pence the píkul weight; but in the vicinity of Semárang, and in districts where it is not produced in great abundance, it bears an advance upon this price of fifty per cent.

The climate, soil, and state of society on Java, seem to offer peculiar advantages to the extensive cultivation of this plant; and under the direction of skilful manufacturers, the dye stuff might form a most valuable and important export for the European market. The periodical draughts and inundations, which confine the cultivation and manufacture in the Bengal provinces to a few months in the year, are unknown in Java, where the plant might, in favoured situations, be cultivated nearly throughout the whole year, and where at least it would be secure of a prolonged period of that kind of weather, necessary for the cutting. The soil is superior, and a command of water affords facilities seldom to be met with elsewhere; while, from the tenure on which the cultivators hold their land, and the state of society among them, advances on account of the ensuing crop, which in Bengal form so ruinous a part of an indigo concern, are here unnecessary, and would be uncalled for.

The dye (níla blue) is prepared by the natives in a liquid state, by infusing the leaves with a quantity of lime: in this state it forms by far the principal dye of the country. Besides the quantity of it consumed within the island, it is sometimes exported to neighbouring countries by native traders, and sold at the rate of from a dollar and a half to three dollars the píkul, according as the plant may be in abundance or otherwise.

It is impossible to form any idea of the rate at which this species of dye can reasonably be manufactured for the European market, from the prices paid by the Dutch, both because the article was one of those classed by them under the head of forced deliveries, and because the regents, who were entrusted with its exclusive management, not fully understanding the process of making it, conducted it always in a very expensive way, and were frequently exposed to entire failures.