136 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL 



about with countless superstitions which often interfere 

 with good farming. On the whole, however, it may be 

 said that the better part of the land is highly cultivated. 

 In Madura, maize partly supplies the place of rice, owing 

 to the flatter nature of the country. A system of com- 

 munal ]3i'opi'ietorship obtains in most parts, the land 

 being annually redivided, but much is held by individual 

 owners. All new land won from the forest by clearing 

 becomes the property of the person clearing it. 



Although there were in 1890 over five million acres 

 of rice-land in cultivation in the lowlands, it is not to 

 this, but to the higher botanical zones that the Govern- 

 ment looks for its profit. Coffee has been said to be the 

 pivot upon which everything in Java turns, though how 

 much longer it will remain so is another question. It 

 was first introduced in 1696, and early in the last 

 century was being exported in fair quantity. Upon the 

 introduction of the " culture-system " in 1830 a con- 

 siderable increase took place, and before the devastation 

 caused by the appearance of the Hemileia vastatrix in 

 1879, some 60,000 tons were annually sent to Holland. 

 In 1887 the return was only 17,750 tons, and although 

 that of the following year was somewhat better, the de- 

 crease has been steady. In 1890, the lowest crop of the 

 half century, 15,578 tons, was obtained, and that of 1891 

 was estimated at not more than 11,000 tons. This is 

 the Government export ; that of private growers is rather 

 greater in amount. At the last computation there were 

 114 million coffee trees in cultivation as against 250 

 millions in former years. The Government, while ad- 

 mitting that the future prospects of the island in this 

 respect are far from favourable, and that there is no pro- 

 duct which in tlie immediate future can be looked for to 

 take the place of coffee, are averse to a modification of 



