the
cultivation of the ground has advanced to the aesthetic stage, as it has
in insular Japan. In Tonga the coco-palm plantations are weeded and
manured. Here, after a devastating war, the victorious chief devotes his
attention to the cultivation of the land, which soon assumes a beautiful
and flourishing appearance.[969] In Tongatabu, which is described by the
early visitors as one big garden, Cook found officials appointed to
inspect all produce of the island and to enforce the cultivation of a
certain quota of land by each householder.[970] Here agriculture is a
national concern.

[Sidenote: Melanesian agriculture.]

In the minute land fragments which constitute Micronesia, fishing is
the chief source of subsistence; agriculture, especially for the all
important taro, is limited to the larger islands like the Pelews. In the
vast islands of western Melanesia, agriculture is on the whole less
advanced. New Guinea, where the chase yields support to many villages,
has large sections still a wilderness, though some parts are cultivated
like a garden. In the smaller Melanesian islands, such as New Hebrides,
New Britain and the Solomon group, we find extensive plantations laid
out on irrigated terraces, In New Hebrides and the Banks Islands every
single village has its flowers and aromatic herbs.[971] But it is in
Fiji that native island agriculture seems to culminate. Here a race of
dark, frizzly haired savages, addicted to cannibalism, have in the art
of tillage taken a spurt forward in civilization, till in this respect
they stand abreast of the average European. The German asparagus bed is
not cultivated more carefully than the yam plants of Fiji; these also
are grown in mounds made of soil which has been previously pulverized by
hand. The variety and excellence of their vegetable products are
amazing, and find their reflection in an elaborate national cuisine,
strangely at variance with the otherwise savage life.[972]

West of Melanesia, the Malay Archipelago shows a high average of
tillage. The inhabitants of Java, Madura, Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa are
skilled agriculturists and employ an elaborate system of
irrigation,[973] but the natives of Timor, on the other hand, have made
little progress. In the Philippines a rich and varied agriculture has
been the chief source of wealth since the Spanish conquest early in the
sixteenth century, proving a native aptitude which began to develop long
before.[974]

[Sidenote: