e,
sugar, coffee, and tea could not be moved to the great trade centres and
seaports. Rice is the chief crop, but so much is consumed that only a
little is left for export. The export rice is sold in Borneo. Most of it
is grown on the low coast plains, and these are watered by a net-work of
canals.

Coffee is the crop that has made Java famous, and Java coffee is
regarded the best produced. A few years ago it was the custom to sort
the coffee with great care and then to store it several years in order
to improve the flavor. The coffee thus seasoned was known as "old
government" coffee. Much of the crop is now grown by private owners and
is known as "private plantations" coffee.

Sugar has become the foremost export crop. Most of it goes to Europe; a
small part of it is sent to the refineries of the United States. The
great sugar plantations are likewise on the lowlands. Most of the
plantations are owned by wealthy Hollanders, or by Dutch companies. The
cane grows taller than that of the Cuban plantations; usually it is
twice the height of the native laborers and grows so thickly as to make
the field like a jungle. It requires a great sum of money to carry on a
sugar plantation, for thousands of dollars must be spent in preparing
the land.

But when one sees the great mills with their ponderous machinery, the
thousands of native workmen, and the train loads of sugar which seem to
be swallowed by the great steamships, one cannot help thinking that the
sugar-planters make a lot of money in their business. Their homes, many
of them, are beautiful palaces--as costly as can be found anywhere in
Europe.

Indigo is another famous product of Java. The indigo plant would look
like a rank bunch of weeds were it not planted in rows. The leaves,
which contain the coloring matter, are picked two or three times a year
and soaked in water. When they begin to rot, the coloring matter leaves
the plant and mixes with the water, from which it is afterward
separated by boiling. The coloring matter itself is called indigo; it is
a beautiful blue used for dyeing yarns and cloth. The blue cotton cloth
so much worn by the Dutch peasants is colored with indigo, and both the
cloth and the dye find a market in pretty nearly every country in the
world.

[Illustration: Coffee-drying in Java]

Years ago an enterprising Dutch botanist brought to Java some cinchona
trees from South America. The experiment was successful and so many
trees were