190 SUGAR CULTIVATION. 



The first sort calculated to produce 25 piculs* sugar per 

 bouw; the second, 20; the third, 15. 



The tax is 3 J copper rupees per picul, thus calculated. If the 

 sugar fabricant cannot agree with the Government servant ap- 

 pointed to tax the canes, the matter is settled by arbitration. 

 A bouw of good cane ought to give 8000 to 9000 bundles of 

 25 canes each, and about 30 piculs of sugar ; very superior canes 

 have given 35 to 40 piculs per bouw, and by using the vacuum 

 process in the fabrication even 50 piculs have been obtained. 



Good canes are generally about eight or nine feet long, con- 

 taining more saccharine matter than canes of a greater length. 

 There are now only two kinds of cane planted in Java ; 1 st, the 

 white cane ; 2nd, the Japara cane. The former is generally 

 planted in light, the latter in heavy soils ; the latter flowers 

 when ripe, but not the former. Otaheite cane was tried, but 

 found not to answer. The canes are planted generally at a dis- 

 tance of not more than three miles from the mill, but there are 

 instances in which the canes are eight miles distant. This is 

 only where the population is thin, or the ground in the vicinity 

 poor. In most contracts the Government undertakes not to 

 plant at a greater distance than three miles. 



In Sourabaya they plant canes one year, and rice the next, 

 every year alternately. In Passarouan and Probolingo, however, 

 they plant one year canes and two years rice, the ground not 

 being so much impoverished by the latter mode as by the former. 

 Rattooning canes has been altogether abandoned, not only be- 

 cause the soil was impoverished by that process, but because the 

 quantity of sugar obtained from rattooned canes was proved to 

 be less than that from new shoots. 



In the Residencies of Passarouan and Probolingo the canes 

 are planted a month earlier than in that of Sourabaya. This 

 arises from the lands of Sourabaya being overflowed by the 

 rivers, which prevents the early planting of the rice crop, and 

 consequently retards its harvest, so that the paddy fields are not 

 cleared so early as in the two other Residencies. 



* One picul = 1361bs. English. 



