POSSESSIONS IN THE INDIAN ASCH1PKLAG0. 197 
til the pages destined to place before the eyes of the readers some 
results obtained by the different cultures, it will be necessary for me 
* I 
to enter into a part of the details which are presented by the official 
statements and reports made to Government on the state of the cul¬ 
tures in 1840 and 1841. 
We place at the head that of rice, a nutritious product which for a 
very great number of years lias served as the principal food * not only 
in Java but also in the other Sunda Islands. Java is the granary 
of plenty for all the Archipelago; and the Company occupies itself 
in this culture with solicitude, well persuaded that a scarcity of rice 
might be fatal to its power. Ordinances to encourage and to increase 
this branch of agriculture, have been promulgated at different times 
by an authority called to watch over the physical well being of many 
millions of inhabitants. 
We now state that the produce of this culture has always been on 
the increase, while at the same time others more valued in commerce 
have been established at the expence of the rice fields,f and we shall 
give proof of this. 
Taking as the basis of comparison the land tax (too uncertain as it is 
for establishing a just view) we find that in 1818 the sum total of the 
tax upon lands brought in 2 millions of florins to the treasury; from 
1820 to 1830 it was raised to 5 millions, in 1840 to 8 millions; and 
in the table of revenues for 1845 the land tax of the Javanese com¬ 
munes amounted to more than 10 millions. As an evident proof that 
the culture of rice, of which it would be difficult to fix the quantity 
produced annually, increases considerably, we may mention that the 
exportation in 1840 was 1,488,350 piculs of 125 ibs. 
The foregoing exportation does not comprehend the crops in the 
provinces of Batavia, of Buitenzorg, of Soerakarta and of Djokjo- 
karta. The products of these two last provinces do not form any 
"part of the figures of the following tables. 
*' In the time of the Company the Javanese population still resorted for 
food to maize, or to roots the use of which was still less conducive to health. 
-f The rice is cultivated in Java in three manners principally, the name 
of sawah is given to the rice fields which can be irrigated artificially; tipar 
or tagaly are elevated but level grounds, and gagak or ladang are cleared 
forest grounds. The two last only give one crop; a second crop may be 
obtained from the sawah which then most commonly consists of kaljang 
from which oil is extracted, in kapas or tine cotton, and in ubic a kind of 
potatce. 
