178 



AUSTRALASIA. 



Java ranks next to Brazil in the production of coffee, and also holds the second 

 place in the markets of the world for that of sugar, in this product being exceeded 

 by Cuba alone. The crop, which, however, varies greatl}^ from year to year accord- 

 ing to the rainfall and other climatic conditions, averages one-tenth of that pro- 

 duced by the rest of the world. There are several local varieties of the cane, whose 

 cultivation is one of the old industries of the island. In 1808, the yield rose to 5,800 

 tons, but it did not acquire its present gigantic proportions till the second half of the 

 century. The share of the Government in this industry declines each year in virtue 



Fig. 70. — Zones of Wet and Dry Rice Fields and Coffee Plantations on Mount Sumbing. 



Scale 1 : 150,000. 



, s Miles. 



of the law obliging it to gradually abolish statute labour, and to grant concessions to 

 private enterprise. Some of the plantations, especially in the Jokjokarta and 

 Surakarta districts, are supplied with machinery in no respects inferior to that of 

 the finest sugar mills in Europe. 



The tea industry, introduced from Japan in 1826, has never acquired a 

 development sufficient to enter into serious competition with the Chinese and 

 Indian growers. The plantations laid out by Grovernment in all parts of the island 

 did not prove very profitable, and since I860 the industry has been completely 



