this highly interesting and important subject I
shall endeavour, without tiring the reader, to furnish
him with a full account. This will be comprised
in five short chapters, under the following
heads: ls£, « General Remarks on the
Husbandry of the Indian Islands;” 2d; “ Husbandry
of the Materials of Food;” 3d, “ Husbandry
of Articles of Native Luxury; 4 th.'
“ Husbandry of the Materials of Native Manufactures
and Ar t s a n d , 5 th, “ Husbandry of
Articles chiefly for Foreign Exportation.” In this
comprehensive view of the husbandry of the Indian
islands it will be found, that the rich variety of
product which I have enumerated is far from being
accumulated in one spot or island, and that, in rendering
an account of it, it will be necessary to embrace
the whole range of the Archipelago. The
agriculture of the different islands is often, notwithstanding
the apparent similarity of climate, as opposite
as if each country belonged to a different zone,
I proceed to a detail of the first division of my
subject, premising, that I hold chiefly in view the
husbandry of the great materials of food, and the
western countries of the Archipelago, especially
Java, where that branch of agricultural industry is
carried on in a degree of perfection unknown to
the rest.
In relation to agriculture,, the only essentially
useful division of seasons is into a wet and a dry.
The year, as is sufficiently known; is divided, ip
countries situated within the tropics, almost equally
into a wet and dry half. The sun is ajwâys
sufficiently powerful to quicken vegetable life ; it
is moisture alone that is wanted. The wet half
of the year is, therefore, naturally the season of
germination ; the dry that of fructification. They
may not unaptly be denominated the spring and
autumn of those countries. In relation to agricultural
purposes the climate is also varied according
to the elevation of the land ; and, in countries
çlose to the equator, the labours of agriculture are
pursued in the various climates which occur from
the level of the ocean, and a heat of 84° of Fahrenheit’s
thermometer, to an elevation of six thousand
feet, and a consequent diminution of 20 degrees
of temperature. ' The Configuration of the land
occasions local varieties. Where plains of considerable
extent occur the drought is greater than
usual. In some situations the vicinity of mountains
occasions an unusual fall of rain ; and in
others, the interruption of the periodical winds
by extensive ranges of mountains occasions a total
inversion of the seasons. ,, , ,
Such is the strength of the sun’s rays at all
times, that a great many of the productions of agriculture
grow indiscriminately throughout the year,
With the assistance of the incidental showers which
fall even in the dryest seasons. Others require the