JAVA 



12: 



Extensive valleys and mountain sides are terraced and 

 levelled in steps, and water is carried from the mountain 

 streams so that every plot can he flooded or dried at 

 pleasure. These terraced lands are of very great antiquity, 

 l)ut they are continually being extended, and they enalde 

 the ground to produce a constant succession of crojjs all 

 the year round, and year after year, without manure, 

 because the fertilising; matter held in solution and sus- 



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NATIVE HOUSE, JAVA. 



pension by all streams is retained upon the land instead 

 of being carried away to the sea and wasted. This mode 

 of terracing the land and compelling the streams to 

 fertilise it effectually, is probably the most perfect system 

 of agriculture conceivable, and could it only l)e applied in 

 our own country, it would enable us at once to solve the 

 problem of the economical utilisation of sewage ; for we 

 should then have, in all parts of the country, water ready 

 to carry and dilute, and land ready levelled to receive the 

 rich n:ianures that are now thrown into the sea, having 



