1832.] 
ISLAND OF JAVA. 
289 
labour or expense. But the prospect is not confined to, or 
limited by, rice-fields alone ; it is occasionally relieved by corn- 
fields of yellow maize, and enclosures of palma christi, cotton, 
tobacco, indigo, sugarcane, coffee-plants, pepper-vines, and v^rheat ;• 
frequently interspersed with, gardens rich in vegetables of almost 
every description.* 
A cultivator requires but little farming stock ; a pair of buffa- 
loes, or a yoke of oxen; a number of sheep, goats, fowls, &c.,; 
with a few rude implements of husbandry, comprise the whole. 
The buffalo, like the ox,- " lends his patient shoulder to the yoke," 
and becomes very useful in ploughing and other agricultural ex- 
ercises where strength is requisite. He is of smaller size than 
the buffalo of Sumatra, but he is also a strong, tractable animal,- 
capable of long and continued exertion when not unreasonably 
exposed to the heat of the. mid-day sun. Though sensitively shy 
of Europeans — and we do not wonder at it — he submits to be 
managed by the smallest child of the family in which he is do- 
mesticated. He is instinctively partial to the golden teint of a 
Javan's skin, though he himself is either white or black ; those of 
the latter hue, being of larger size, are generally considered supe- 
rior to the other. Either from the luxuriance of the pastures, the 
greater care of the keepers, or a climate more congenial to their 
nature, both the buffalo and the ox appear in much better condition 
on the Island of Java, than they do in Sumatra or any other part 
of India. But though the ox thrives well, the cows do not, being 
a degenerate breed, affording little or no milk beyond what is 
barely sufficient for the nou.rishment of the calf. They also boW 
their necks to the yoke of labour, in imitation of their oppressed 
masters. 
With respect to commerce, the Javans, like every other half 
* " Nothing can be conceived more beautiful to the eye, or more gratifying to the' 
imagination, than the prospect of hill and dale, of rich plantations and fruit-trees 
or forests, of natural streams and artificial currents, which presents itself to the eye' 
in several of the eastern and middle provinces, at some distance from the coast. In 
some parts of Kedu, Banyumas, Semarang, Pasuruan, and Malang, it is difficult to 
say whether the admirer of landscapes or the cultivator of the ground will be most 
gratified by the view. The whole countiry, as seen from mountains of considerable 
elevation, appears a rich, diversified, and well- watered garden, animated with 
villages, interspersed with the most luxuriant fields, and covered with the freshest- 
verdure."— ^jRo^s' Java. 
