The History of Java, v. 1-2

by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles

The climate, soil, and state of society on Java, seem to offer peculiar advantages to the extensive cultivation of this plant; and under the direction of skilful manufacturers, the dye stuff might form a most valuable and important export for the European market. The periodical draughts and inundations, which confine the cultivation and manufacture in the Bengal provinces to a few months in the year, are unknown in Java, where the plant might, in favoured situations, be cultivated nearly throughout the whole year, and where at least it would be secure of a prolonged period of that kind of weather, necessary for the cutting. The soil is superior, and a command of water affords facilities seldom to be met with elsewhere; while, from the tenure on which the cultivators hold their land, and the state of society among them, advances on account of the ensuing crop, which in Bengal form so ruinous a part of an indigo concern, are here unnecessary, and would be uncalled for.

The dye (níla blue) is prepared by the natives in a liquid state, by infusing the leaves with a quantity of lime: in this state it forms by far the principal dye of the country. Besides the quantity of it consumed within the island, it is sometimes exported to neighbouring countries by native traders, and sold at the rate of from a dollar and a half to three dollars the píkul, according as the plant may be in abundance or otherwise.

It is impossible to form any idea of the rate at which this species of dye can reasonably be manufactured for the European market, from the prices paid by the Dutch, both because the article was one of those classed by them under the head of forced deliveries, and because the regents, who were entrusted with its exclusive management, not fully understanding the process of making it, conducted it always in a very expensive way, and were frequently exposed to entire failures.

The cotton of the country, distinguished by the name of kápas jáwa, is a variety of the gossypium herbaceum; but it is inferior to that generally cultivated on the Indian continent, which is also found on Java, and called by the Javans kápas múri. The plant of the former differs from the latter, in having a smaller stem, and in yielding a material, both of coarser fibre and in less quantity. There is a third variety, with a subarborescent stem, called kápas táhon, which is very scarce. Trials remain to be made, to determine how far the culture of the Indian cotton might be extended, so as to supersede the Javan cotton. The inferior kind, which forms the principal, and indeed with the mass of the people the only material for clothing, is cultivated in almost every part of the island. The soil, however, is not considered as universally favourable to its growth: many of the low lands, consisting of a clay, which bursts in the dry season, are unfit for it; and on several of the more fertile districts, where the plant itself flourishes, little cotton is obtained from it: the declivities of the hills, in which the mountain rice is raised, yield in general the best and most abundant supply. At present, scarcely a sufficient quantity is produced on the island to employ the female part of the inhabitants; and one district often depends upon another for the principal part of what it uses. The cotton of Bányumás is exported to Bágalen, to Tégal, and the western parts of Matárem, where it is manufactured; the environs of Wong'go, Adi-langú, and other places towards the southern hills, supply both the capitals in the interior; Kediri, Pranárága, and the vicinity, likewise furnish considerable quantities for other parts of the island. In the Súnda districts, the principal supply is received from the east and west Jámpang. The culture of cotton, and the manufacture of yarn, are in some degree promoted by an ancient custom, which imposes on every householder or village a certain contingent of cotton yarn for the sovereign, or for the person who holds the land on his account: this custom is called panyúmpleng. The chiefs on Java, and particularly on Báli, frequently wear a skein of cotton yarn entwined round the handle of the kris; a custom which sufficiently indicates the respect paid to this species of cultivation.

The Javan cotton is a hardy plant, which grows to about the height of a foot and a half. It is generally planted on the sáwahs after the reaping of the rice crop, and yields the cotton in less than three months. The Indian cotton grows to a larger size, and produces a material of an infinitely superior quality; but it is more delicate in its nature, must be watched with greater care, and requires a month longer to attain to maturity. Cotton cultivated on tégal, or dry land, is considered as generally better than that raised as a second crop on sáwah; and this mode of cultivation has been adduced as the cause of the superiority ascribed to the cotton of Bâli, and other more eastern islands.

Tobacco,[47] termed by the natives tombáku, or sáta, is an article of very general cultivation, but is only extensively raised for exportation in the central districts of Kedú and Bányumás: as it requires a soil of the richest mould, but at the same time not subject to inundations, these districts hold out peculiar advantages to the tobacco-planter, not to be found on the low lands. For internal consumption, small quantities are raised in convenient spots every where; but the most eastern districts and Madúra are principally supplied from Púgar. Bantam receives its supply from Bányumás, by means of native traders from Pakalúngan visiting that port in small craft. The produce of Kedú is conveyed by men to Semárang, the great port of exportation.

In Kedu it forms, after rice, by far the most important article of cultivation; and, in consequence of the fitness of the soil, the plant grows to the height of from eight to ten feet, on lands not previously dressed or manured, with a luxuriance seldom witnessed in India. Cultivated here alternately with rice, only one crop of either is obtained within the year; but after the harvest of the rice, or the gathering of the tobacco-leaves, the land is allowed to remain fallow, till the season again arrives for preparing it to receive the other. The young plant is not raised within the district, but procured from the high lands in the vicinity; principally from the district of Káli-béber, on the slope of the mountain Díeng or Práhu, where it is raised and sold by the hundred to the cultivators of the adjoining districts. The transplantation takes place in the month of June, and the plant is at its full growth in October.

Wheat has been introduced by the Europeans, and cultivated with success to the extent required by the European population. It thrives in many parts of the interior of the country: it is sown in May, and reaped in October; and, where the cultivation has been left to the Javans, the grain has been sold at the rate of about seven rupees the píkul.

Potatoes have been cultivated during the last forty years, in elevated situations, near all the principal European establishments, and are reckoned of a quality superior to those ordinarily procured in Bengal or China. Few of the natives, however, have as yet adopted them as a common article of food. Besides potatoes, most of the common culinary vegetables of Europe are raised in the gardens of the Europeans and Chinese. It must be confessed, however, that they degenerate, if perpetuated on the soil without change; and that their abundance and quality depends, in a great measure, on the supplies of fresh seed imported from Europe, the Cape, or other quarters.

Having now given an account of the different kinds of produce raised within the island, and the arts of husbandry practised by the natives, I shall conclude this short sketch of Javan agriculture by an account of the tenure of landed property, the rights of the proprietor and tenant, the proportion of the produce paid for rent, the division of farms among the inhabitants of villages, and the causes that have obstructed or promoted agricultural improvements.