104 temminck’s general view of the dutch 
and only in the localities where the workmen were not in sufficiently 
great numbers, the last were paid a fixed quantity of rice and salt, 
over and above the remission of the tax. As the Javanese preferred , 
to work under the immediate surveillance of liis countrvmen, this fa- 
vor was granted to him. All the care which the culture, the harvest 
and the manufacture demanded were entrusted to the vigilance of the 
European heads. In the districts where the cultivation of the sugar 
cane had existed for a length of time, permission was given to the Ja¬ 
vanese to manage their own ground, under the obligation of paying 
the tax with which the rice fields were charged; in the localities 
where the rice fields are not much extended, the right of draining the 
soil in the higher districts was accorded to the population. 
The difficulties which were raised by the Javanese of the provinces 
of the interior to the application of this system were speedily re¬ 
moved by the simplicity of the means put in operation. After hav¬ 
ing set apart the fifth part of the rice fields of the desa, or after hav¬ 
ing chosen elevated soil fit for the culture, the work was distributed 
amongst the population in the following manner. In order to exe¬ 
cute the necessary work on an extent of soil of one boitw* the desa 
was obliged to furnish four men, two of whom were obliged to work 
alternately for a week or a month according to the arrangement made. 
The working men had as superintendents Chinese called mandoor 
(literally master servant) who were under the surveillance of the 
chief of the village. 
A part of the population employed in these labours is entrusted with, 
them until the produce is perfectly ripe; then they are free from all 
other work; all the other employments are regulated on the same 
footing. The manufacture is ordinarily entrusted to free workmen; 
if there are none, the labour is performed in the manner we have 
just mentioned. 
We finish these details by the application of this system to the cul¬ 
tivation of sugar, already taken as an example in the foregoing pages. 
The produce of a bahu planted with sugar cane may be stated at 
a minimum of 15 jnculs.'f Consequently an establishment which 
furnishes 6000 piculs of sugar requires an extent of 400 bahus of 
* In Javanese, bahu. This measure is equal to 71 acresor square deca¬ 
metres; four bahus make the djung.—X picul is the weight ofl25 Ib.s 
( Dutch), and 27 piculs form the koyan. This last measure contains more 
or less piculs according to the different articles and localities: but a koyan 
of rice is always of 27 piculs. 
-{* The bahu planted with canes ordinarily furnishes from 20 to 21 piculs 
of sugar; although sometimes, though rarely, it produces as much as 25, 
