154 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



I. 



93S. The crops raised by the colonists are coffee, sugar, cotton, tobacco, and a variety of 

 other productions of the East. One of the principal articles is coffee, which is first 

 raised in seed-beds, then transplanted under an open shed for the sake of shade, and then 

 in about eighteen months removed into the garden or plantation where they are destined 

 to yield their fruit. A plantation is laid out in squares, the distance of plant from plant 

 being commonly about six feet, and in the centre of each four trees, is placed a dadap tree, 

 for the purpose of affording shade, which in Java seems necessary to the health of the 

 coffee plant. It is never pruned, grows to the height of sixteen feet ; will bear for 

 twenty years : but a plantation in Java is seldom continued more than ten years. In 

 general three crops of berries are produced in a season. 



934. The live stock of the Java farmer, is the ox and buffalo, used in ploughing ; and 

 the horse for burden : they have a few sheep, and goats, and poultry. 



935. The iinplements are the plough, of which they have a common, or rice-ground, 

 sort ; a dry-soil plough, and a garden or plantation plough, all of which are yoked to a 

 pair of buffaloes, or oxen, in the same manner. The harrow ( fig. 145 a), on which the 



\L^.s^ 



145 



driver sits, is a sort of rake ; and they have a sort of strong hoe, which they use as a 

 substitute for a spade [b), and a lighter one, used as a draw hoe (c). Their knives for 

 weeding, pruning, and reaping 

 {Jig. 1 46 rt toy), are very curious ; 

 one of them [g), is used both 

 as an axe and bill, and another 

 (A), as a thrust hoe and prun- 

 ing hook. It is observed by Go- 

 vernor Raffles, that in reaping 

 they crop off " each separate 

 car along Avith a few inches of 

 the straw ;" an " operose process' ' 

 which he was informed had its 

 origin in some religious notions. 

 Crops are generally dibbled or 

 transplanted : no manure is even required or given in Java excepting water. In 

 ploughing for rice, the land is converted into a semifluid mire, in which the plants are 

 inserted. A curious mode is made use of to scare the birds from ripening crops. An 

 elevated shed is raised in the middle of the plantation or field, 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 thus prevents the ravages of 

 birds. The native cart of Java is a clumsy conjunction of boards, running on two 

 solid wheels from five to six feet in diameter, and only from one to two inches broad on 

 a revolving axle. It is drawn by two buffaloes. 



936. The upas or poison tree, {Rhus, sp. ?) has been said to be a native of and pecu- 

 liar to Java ; but Dr. Horsfield and other botanists have ascertained that there is no 

 tree in the island answering its description : there are two trees used for poisoning war- 

 like instruments, but neither are so powerful as to be used alone ; and, indeed, they are 

 in no way remarkable either as poison plants or trees. The rafflesia arnoldii, the most 

 extraordinary parasitic plant known to botanists, is believed to be a native of this island 

 as well as of Sumatra, where it was originally found. 



937. The roads of Java, Sir Stamford Raffles observes, are of a greater extent and 

 of a better description than in most countries. A high road, passable for carriages at all 

 seasons of the year, runs from the western to the eastern extremity of the island, a 

 distance of not less than eight hundred English mdes, with post stations and relays of 

 horses every five miles. The greater part of it is so level that a canal might be cut 

 along its side. There is another high road which crosses the island from north to south, 

 and many intersecting cross roads. The main roads were chiefly formed by the Dutch 



