Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

178 AUSTRALASIA.Java ranks next to Brazil in the production of coSee, and also holds the secondplace in the markets of the world for that of sugar, in this product being exceededby Cuba alone.The crop, which, however, varies greatly from year to year accordingto the rainfall and other climatic conditions, averages one-tenth of that producedby the rest of the world. There are several local varieties of the cane, whosecultivation is one of the old industries of the island. In 1808, the yield rose to 5,800tons, but it did not acquire its present gigantic" proportions till the second half of thecentury.The share of the Government in this industry declines each year in virtueFig. 70. Zones of Wet and Dry Rice Fields and Coffee Plantations on Mount Sumbino.Soaie 1 ; 160,000.of the law obliging it to gradually abolish statute labour, and to grant concessions toprivate enterprise. Some of the plantaticms, especially in the Jokjokarta andSurakarta districts, are supplied with machinery in no respects inferior to that ofthe finest sugar mills in Euroj)e.The tea industry, introduced from Japan in 1826, has never acquired adevelopment sufficient to enter into serious competition with the Chinese andIndian growers. The plantations laid out by Government in all parts of the islanddid not prove very profitable, and since 1865 the industry has been completely