152 AGRICULTURE IN THE TROPICS [PT. Ill 



communications, and of the absence of mines or other compet- 

 ing attractions, must not be forgotten. Java is now so densely 

 populated that her people must work hard to make a living, 

 and they have no other large industry but agriculture, while at 

 the same time they have easy local communication and good 

 local markets. A similar state of affairs may be seen in the 

 extreme north of Ceylon, and in much of Bengal or Madras 

 and the more densely populated West Indian islands. 



To quote Prof. Olive Day, the plan of the culture system 

 was in brief as follows : instead of paying to the Government a 

 certain proportion of their crops, the natives were to put at its 

 disposal a certain proportion of their land and labour-time. 

 The revenue would then consist, not in rice, which was almost 

 universally cultivated and which was of comparatively little 

 value to the Government, but in export products grown under 

 the direction of the Government contractors on the land set 

 free by the remission of the former tax (for of course less rice 

 would have to be grown). According to the estimate, the 

 natives would give up only one-fifth of their land and one-fifth 

 of their time in place of two-fifths of their main crop. The 

 Government promised to bear the loss from failure of crops if 

 this was not directly due to the fault of the cultivators, and 

 moreover promised to pay the natives a certain price for such 

 amounts as they furnished. The Government proposed in this 

 way to secure products suited for export to the European 

 market, on which it expected to realise profits largely in excess 

 of the prices paid to natives and contractors and of the costs of 

 administration. To the natives it promised increased prosperity 

 and a lighter burden of taxation, as a result of the fuller 

 utilisation of their chances under the far-sighted management 

 of Europeans. The labour that before, through carelessness 

 and ignorance, would have been wasted in idleness or in the 

 cultivation of some cheap and superfluous crop, was to supply a 

 product of great value in the world-market, and the natives 

 were to share in the resulting profits. 



"The plan of the culture system is on its face attractive, 

 and the system has been judged so often by the plan and 

 professions of its founder rather than by its actual working 



