1901-0248,381long tons
1902-0334,769”
1903-0460,650”
1904-0550,276”
1905-0664,190”
1906-0781,448”
1907-0868,450”
1908-09122,000”
1909-10205,000”
1910-11267,000”
1911-12173,224”
1912-13113,100”
1913-14190,000”
1914-15186,000”
1915-16290,953”
1916-17338,997”[82]

The crop of 1911-12 suffered severely from prolonged drought at planting time, and the typhoons of August, 1911, devastated the cane fields. The effect of this disaster was to deter the natives from planting cane the following year, and in consequence the production for that season was cut down more than fifty per cent.

It is obvious that the rapid development in Formosa has been brought about by the paternal policy of the government, without whose powerful aid the industry would in all probability have made but slow progress. The total of Japan’s sugar consumption is about 300,000 tons per annum, and it is perhaps safe to hazard the guess that her statesmen will do everything they can in reason to encourage production in her own territory until this quantity shall have been reached.[83]

JAVA

Java, the seat of the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies, lies in the Indian ocean south of Sumatra and Borneo, between 105 degrees 12 minutes and 114 degrees 35 minutes east longitude, and between 5 degrees 52 minutes and 8 degrees 46 minutes south latitude. It is 622 miles long and 121 miles wide at its greatest breadth, and this narrows to about 55 miles toward the middle of the island. The area of Java proper is 48,504 square miles, Madura comprises 1732 square miles and the smaller islands under Javan jurisdiction cover 1416 square miles.

Of the three general divisions of Java, the east, the middle and the west, each has certain structural features of its own. In west Java the highlands lie to the south and the lowlands to the north. Middle Java takes in the isthmus and part of the wide eastern portion. In the isthmus the mountain barrier on the south is less regular and the northern plains are broken to a certain extent. The eastern division is made up of an intricate confusion of hills and valleys, except on the south coast, where the mountain range forms a continuous barrier. The shore line of the north coast is low everywhere, with morasses, sand dunes and shifting river mouths, but it is of much greater importance than the south coast, which is steep, at intervals rocky and constantly battered by a violent surf.

Java is one of the most distinctly volcanic regions of the world—it has fourteen active volcanoes and one hundred and twenty-five recognized volcanic centers.

Both the north and south coast lines are broken by rivers, the principal ones being on the north. In the dry season they contain little water, but during the rainy monsoon[84] they frequently become rushing torrents that burst their banks and overflow the surrounding country. Such inundations carry with them a considerable amount of disintegrated volcanic rock, part of which is deposited on the plains and swept seaward. In this manner the alluvial plains near the river courses are formed and the shoals in the harbors and at the river mouths as well.

Java enjoys a comparatively even temperature the year round. Ninety-six degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in Batavia in 1877 and that is the highest mark known. The lowest was 66 degrees Fahrenheit, which was experienced in the same place in the same year. The mean annual temperature is 79 degrees Fahrenheit, and the difference between the warmest and the coldest months is 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. The year is divided into two seasons by the prevailing winds—the rainy period, that of the wet monsoon, from November to March, and the dry period the remainder of the year, when the dry monsoon blows. There is no long unbroken rainfall and no long spell of drought. The average rainfall is much greater on the south coast than on the north: in Batavia it is 72.28 inches yearly, while Majalenka has an annual fall of 175 inches. Wind-storms are rare and hardly ever cyclonic, but thunderstorms are of frequent occurrence. Under an almost vertical sun, the day is of nearly uniform length throughout the year.