254 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. fOcT. r, 1894. 
PLANTING IN JAVA. 
COFFEE — CA CAO — TEA. 
The Ceylon Editors having intimated to me 
that my liemmiscences of Java would be to some 
extent of general interest I am pleased to submit 
the following notes for use at the Editors' dis- 
cretion : — 
Omitting particulars that may be found in 
the Cyclopedia there are matters interesting to 
a visitor from Ceylon too numerous for a news- 
paper notice, and Ave can only attempt an im- 
perfect sketch of general impressions. No strange] 
to a country is entitled to speak of it with authority 
after a mere holiday tour of 6 weeks, the time itself 
being insufficient to visit all the important dis- 
tricts, cr to study the principal products. Its 
CHIEF INTEREST 
for us lies in the circumstance that for 
a short time it was held by the English, 
having been virtually exchanged for Ceylon. 
Batavia lies in nearly the same latitude South 
as Colombo lies North, and the Dutch have 
carried through their Colonial system without 
interruption,- for nearly a century in Java, 
while the English have followed an entirely 
different system in Ceylon contemporaneously. 
To apply any measure of respective Buccese 
and failure to the two systems is beyond the 
sphere of these observations. The conditions com- 
mon to the two countries are limited to their 
tropical situation, and it may be said that all 
other conditions vary most significantly. 
A few remarks as to the 
PLANTING ENTERPRISE 
may be of interest to our readers ; Java and 
Ceylon have been rivals in 
COFFEE PRODUCTION, 
and though Ceylon bore the palm for ex- 
cellence of quality her importance as a coffee 
country has gone, while in Java many of the old 
Estates remain and new lands may be, and are 
being opened up to advantage : such is likely to 
be the case whilst the commodity maintains its 
present high value ; for although in the wetter 
districts of the Country, particularly in West 
Java where planting received the first and the 
fullest attention, the trees have (in the low country) 
failed or fallen sick, these lands are to a consider- 
able extent being replanted with the Liberian 
variety and with other things, including some 
Cocoa; and there remain in East and Central Java, 
where the climate is dryer and therefore better, 
large tracts of land are available at the pleasure of 
the Dutch Government. It is impossible to say 
exactly what the 
POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT 
is, but in the presence of a very rapidly increasing 
population the first object would seem to be to 
reserveland both in the low country and in the moun- 
tains for posterity ; and the recent policy has cer- 
tainly been to give out no lands to Planters if, 
throughout the stringent investigation preliminary 
to any grant, the slightest objection is raised by 
the local inhabitants or by any of the numerous 
officials through whom the process of enquiry is 
conducted. It is not enough that it will oenefit 
the revenues and condition of the country for such 
and such a plantation to be opened or extended, but 
there mnst be no objection to it ; and even then, 
APPLICATIONS FOR LAND 
have been refused in expansive wastes on mountain 
sides where there is no one to be interfered with. 
To begin with, an applicant has to search for 
land he thinks suitable, and to choose such 
as lie may hope will not be refused. Then 
he has to mark out the boundaries with stone pil- 
lars, and after all preliminaries extending over 
perhaps 3 years or more, lie mav l»e politely but 
distinctly refused. It would be \irtually im- 
possible for a stranger to enter the country with 
the object of taking up land for planting, for the 
most patient must lose heart and precious time. 
These hinderanees might lead one to suppose that 
the acquisition of land involved its alienation 
by the Government ; but no, when the land 
is eventually granted it is not in free hold 
or in fee simple but in " erfpacht."' that is 
a lease for 75 years, the rent commencing 
in the sixth year— for a foreigner is prohibited 
by law from purchasing more than 10 Bouws. • 
(— about 17 acres)— The Ceylon Planters who 
have acquired interests in Java obtained 
their lands on this system of 7o years lease. 
The District in which their interest lies u 
situated in East Java, on the South side of the 
Great Paoen mountain, which is an old Volcano 
about 11,000 feet high, clothed with magnificent 
forest from the sea to the summit. 
THE EAST END OF JAVA 
is much drier than the West, and even in 
the West Monsoon, October to March, which 
is the planting season, the temperature dotes 
not fall much, and days without any sun 
shine are rare. The East Monsoon April to 
September, which sets from New Guinea and 
Australia is dry, with local showers originating 
in the mountains rather than drifting up from 
the sea. It is at about the middle of this pei -j, „| 
that cold nights arc experienced. Moisture is so 
continuous in 
WEST JAVA 
that in some localities even the stems of the 
coconut trees bear lichens and small ferns 
in a manner not experienced in Ceylon, 
but any bad effect of this superabundant 
humidity seems to be offset by the good na- 
tural drainage afforded by the free volcanic soil, and 
moreover the weather is not bad, or persistently 
dull and sunless, for weeks and weeks together as in 
our mountain region. 
THE JAVA MOUNTAINS 
differ from ours characteristically not being all 
clustered together in one Province monopolising all 
the rain clouds and defying for months together 
the genial sun; but they are individuals, or 
limited ranges, that rise in their grand sweep 
from the sea or from the low country so 
gently at first that fields and plantations 
lie on the slopes without seeming to have 
left the plain. A glance at a map will show 
how the mountains occur at intervals, princi- 
pally along the centre of the Island, East and 
West, having their valleys set North and South 
— that is across the narrow sections of the Island. 
(Hence the rivers are not very great). The volca- 
nic influences thus extend throughout the whole 
Island and the wondrous fertility of the coun- 
try may be attributed to these circumstances, com- 
bined with the frequent supplies of .tropical rains. 
JAVA VERSUS CEYLON". 
There seems no question but that any and every 
plant tbst growa can be cultivated to belter advan- 
tEga in Java than in Ceylon, while the higher lands 
(scarcely touched as yet) are conceivably capable 
of cultivation not practicable here. Cypreese3 and 
Casuarinas are indigenous on the highest mountains 
(though it puzzles se'ence how they came there). 
