VISIT TO A SUGAR PLANTATION. 67 



simple means employed by the ancient Egyptians 

 along tlie hill, and which the slabs from the palaces 

 at Nineveh show us were also used alono- the Eu- 

 ph rates. 



Only one crop is usually taken from the soil each 

 year, unless the fields can be readily irrigated. Ma- 

 nure is rarely or never used, and yet the saivas ap- 

 pear as fertile as ever. The sugar-cane, however, 

 quickly exhausts the soil. One cause of this probably 

 is that the whole of every cane is taken from the field 

 except the top and root, while only the upper part of 

 the rice-stalks are carried away, and the rest is burned 

 or allowed to decay on the ground. On this account 

 only one-third of a plantation is devoted to its cul- 

 ture at any one time, the remaining two-thirds being 

 planted with rice, for the sustenance of the natives 

 that work on that plantation. These crops are kept 

 rotating so that the same fields are liable to an extra 

 drain from sugar-cane only once in three years. On 

 each plantation is a village of Javanese, and several 

 of these ^-illao^es are under the immediate manao;e- 

 ment of a controleur. It is his duty to see that a cer- 

 tain number of natives are at work every day, that 

 they prepare the ground, and put in the seed at the 

 proper season, and take due care of it till harvest- 

 time.* 



The name of the plantation we were to see was 

 " Seroenie." As we neared it, several long, low, white 

 buildings came into \'iew, and two or three high 



* For the history of the culture-system and government in the Nether- 

 lands India, consult Money's "Java." 



