CLIMATE AND SOIL IN THE NETHERLANDS INDIES

By Dr. E. C. J. MOHR
Points on which the Netherlands Indies differ intrinsically
from both Europe and the United States of America are climate
and soil. To say that the Netherlands Indies are located in the
tropics, is to put the ease too vaguely. This expression - the
tropics - covers the whole broad belt between the tropics
of Cancer and Capricorn, or between 23 N. lat. and 23 S. lat.
But within this vast belt itself great differences of climate
are found and the strip between IO
o
N. lat. and ID
o
S. lat.,
within which the Indies lie, is quite distinct from the regions
flanking it on either side and may be appropriately called the
tropical zone in a special sense. The fact that the Indies do not
form part of a continent, but are a group of islands, accentuates
this tropical character very greatly, particularly as regards
rainfall.
The first thing to realize is that in the Netherlands Indies the
seasons do not vary in the same way as they do in Europe.
For instance, in those regions there is no summer, when days
are long and nights short, to be followed by winter in which
the Converse is true. Apart from a small variation of about
twenty minutes at the extreme North and extreme South of
the archipelago, the days and nights all over the Indies are
each about twelve hours long all the year round. As in this region
of the earth the sun in its daily course ascends and descends
almost perpendicularly to the horizon, the periods of dawn
and dusk are always short.
As every day at noon the sun stands high in the heavens
16
and shines for the same length of time, or very nearly, it is
clear that the daily variations of temperature will be practically
the same at every point in the archipelago. Particnlarly hot or
particnlarly cold days differ but a few degrees from the average.
But curiously enough it seems to be the very slightness of this
variation which makes human beings so sensitive to such changes
of temperature as do occur. As a matter of fact, in the Netherlands
Indies the thermometer very seldom registers what one thinks
of as tropical heat, but then we must reflect that teniperature
is but one of several factors in respect to atmospheric conditions
as affecting the human senses. The maximum temperature at
sea-level hardly ever exceeds 33 Centigrade there, while in Europe
or the U.S.A. it often reaches 38 or 40 C., and in Arabia and
Southern Persia even 45 or 50 C. On the other hand the
temperature at night shows a smaller drop inside the zone
referred to than outside it, and seldom falls below 23 or perhaps
21 C. The daily margin being so slight and the temperature
moving practically between the same limits every day, it is
small wonder that even at the depth of only one metre the
soil shows no variation in temperature at all, remaining constant
at 25 or 26 C. (at sea level). In Europe a constant soil-tempera-
ture conld only be expected at about ten times this depth.
There are large stretches of low-lying, flat country in the
Netherlands Indies, but the archipelago also includes highlands
where considerable altitudes are reached. The higher one goes,
the cooler it gets. Every 160 metres makes a difference of 1 C.;
at a height of 1600 meters, or almost 5000 feet, the average
temperature is, therefore, IS to 16 C., rising to perhaps 21
or 22 C. in the course of the day and dropping at night to 10
or II
o
C. - a delightfnl climate, this, as regards temperature;
one in which we humans can enjoy life and feel perfectly com-
fortable. At 2400 meters the average temperature is about 10 C.
This same figure is well known as the mean annual temperature
of many places in Western Europe, but it wonld be a mistake
to conclude from this fact that therefore a community of
Europeans wonld find equally appropriate conditions for living
in both regions. For though the average temperature is the
same in both, there is one great difference which must not be
forgotten. In Western Europe the average winter temperature
is 0 C. and" the average summer temperature 20 C.; in the
tropics the temperature in these seasons varies hardly 1 instead
of 20 C., which, for the people who live there, means what
Ernst Haeckel, the great German biologist of the nineteenth
century, called "the everlasting sameness", and which certainly
does not produce a stimnlating effect on the human organism
- not to mention such extremely important factors as the
influence of a practically constant temperature on the vegetation
itself and on the activities of micro-organisms in the soil. The
only variation the weather undergoes is due to changes of moisture,
cloudiness" or rainfall. And these changes may be traced to one
of two causes, one local in origin, the other general.
The local cause usually arises on or near the slopes of high
mountains or mountain ranges in the various islands. During the
morning hours the sun shines on these and on the coastal areas
aud warms them more than it does the adjacent sea. The air above
the land also gets warmer than that which is above the water;
it becomes lighter, rises and is replaced by air coming in from
the sea. This movement causes a current of very damp air
flowing from the sea to the mountain slopes; as it rises, the air
cools, the vapour condenses to form heavy cumnlous clouds
and heavy rain, often accompanied by a sharp thunder-storm,
until during the afternoon eqnilibrium is established once more.
Towards sundown and during the night, the land gets cooler
than the sea. Consequently the cooler air from the mountains
descends to the sea and thereby becomes slightly warmer again,
while remaining clear under the clear, starlit sky. Next day
the same series of changes recurs - clear morning, then clouds,
rain, clear weather once more; unless, indeed, monsoon winds
produce a change in the usual sequence.
These monsoon winds are not local in origin and constitute
the general cause referred to above. They arise in the following
manner: In June the sun is far to the North. At this season it
is hot in Southern Asia and comparatively cold in Australia.
Over Asia cyclonic conditions prevail, in other words, in S.E.
Asia the prevailing wind is from the S. W.; this changes its
course and becomes South Easterly in so far as it comes from
South of the equator in the Netherlands Indies. Over Australia
an anti-cyclonic condition prevails, causing a South East wind
across Northern Australia, which arrives in the Netherlands
Indies as a dry wind from S.E. to E. This dry East monsoon
blows from May to September, or even a little longer, especially
in the Sonthern portion of the archipelago. The further North
or West it gets, the less strongly it is felt.
In December the snn stands far to the Sonth, above the
central part of Anstralia. This means that the cyclone is noW
there, and that conseqnently the prevailing wind blowing across
Northern Anstralia and South of the archipelago is from Sonth
West to ,West. At this season it is cold in Asia, which fact 9auses
a North East wind that, on crossing the equator, turn's into
a North West wind. This wind is noted everywhere throughout
the Indies as a wet monsoon, especially when it blows conjointly
with the South Westerly Ocean breeze caused by Australia.
Wherever it meets highland conntry or mountains on its course,
it causes heavy rains, especially on the West coast of Sumatra,
in Java, Borneo and Celebes.
Rain or dry weather in the plains is a matter depending chiefly on
the dry monsoon; but on the sides of the mountains the rainfall
is ouly increased or decreased by this wind. Hence there are
regions where it rains practically every day of the year, because
the dry monsoon does not penetrate there. The portion of Sumatra
near the equator, almost the whole of Borneo and large portions
of New Guinea are cases in point; on the other hand we find
regions, such as the Northern coastal part of East Java and the
Small Sunda Islands, where the East monsoon is very dry and
lasts very long. Between these two extremes are all sorts of
intermediate conditions. But there is hardly a spot in the whole
of the Netherlands Indies where it does not rain hard for at
least three or four months of the yea;r.
The heavy rainfall of between I to 7 metres per year, which
is particularly characteristic of these tropical areas, strongly
affects the soil and consequently the vegetation. For the
abnndance of rain-water not only wets the soil, but most distinctly
leaches it at the, same time. All substances that are soluble
in water, however slight the solubility may be, are dissolved
in the long rnn and finally carried away into the depths of the
earth to springs, and thence to rivers and to the sea. This process
also takes place in the very damp portions of the temperate
zones, but there it works much more slowly, firstly, because
2.44
rainfall is .jess, and secondly because the temperature is
ower - c.Ircumstance which greatly decreases solubility
A very sIgmficant point is the fact that among these
:b::,ances are which serve to feed the vegetation. Hence
. say ill all tropical regions the soil is constantly
=povenshed, is everywhere tending to a final condition
:nhich would make all vegetable growth impossible, because
It would mean that plant food was entirely lackiog. Fortnnately
there are a number of factors which greatly in
tl
' some cases very
grea y, retard the process towards this fatal end
19l t' ,orevenvery
ar e y preven Its accomplishment. Human welfare demands
that. we should know exactly what these factors are and if
possIble, learn to promote their action '
. It is obvious that leaching decreases the rainfall. Hence
m areas ,:here the dry East monsoon is felt, the soil is generally
comparat;vely fertile, and what is more, retains its fertility
10Ilg. This rule applies all over the globe. All
old cIvilizati?ns which have been able to hold their own for
many centunes have had little rain. Cases in point are Mexico
Peru" Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, India,
The most highly developed cultures that have appeared in the
Indies flourished in Middle Java East J d th
Islands of Bali d L ,ava, an e
. an ombok, that is, in areas where the total
yearly rarnfall was not more than two metres and the East
monsoon was strongly felt.
lower the temperature, the less the leaching
s IS .why often the leaching of the soil on the sides of
mountams and on plateaux is less advanced than at the
foot of the mountams and in the lowlands Thi .
ouly h ld d . s companson
sinill 0 : goo when the areas compared have an equal and
ar rainfall. Examples drawn from the Netherlands Indies
are really ter,rmg, because the rains that fall there on
slopes at high altitudes are often very heavy. In such
rlegIons the greater quantity of rain-water compensates the
ower temperature.
rocks and decompose, soil is produced.
of b . ways contams clay and this clay possesses the facn1ty
a s.orbmg plant-food from the water circn1ating in the soil
and discharges it I I Thi' '
I hi very s ow y. s absorptIon counteracts the
eac ng process and retards it. Humus performs a more or less
245
similar function. Soil rich in clay and humus impoverishes
slowly; quartz-sandy soil impoverishes quicldy. Lnckily
rocks in Java do not contain much quartz and hence there 1S
little quartz-sand in the soil there, but in many parts of Sumatra,
Borneo, Celebes and New Guinea the soil is rich in that sterile
mineral, quartz. This same is true of the Congo and many parts
of Europe and America.
In the tropics humus is always at a disadvantage, for the
higher the temperature, the greater the rate at the
is decomposed and mineralized, whenever mOIsture and.
are plentiful. For this reason the soil in low-lying areas contams
relatively little humus, particularly where forests have been
absent for a long period of time. The higher we go, the cooler
it is the richer the soil is in humus. Hence it is on the mountain
that the flourishiog tea and cinchona plantations are
to be found; the best are on newly cleared forest-land.
In the tropics rain almost always comes down in form
of a sndden downpour such as in Europe would certainly be
termed a cloud-burst. This type of rain-storm produces another
effect on the soil besides the chemical leaching described above,
namely, mechanical surface washiog, or erosion. the
ground slopes even slightly, the strean:mg down
swiftly over its surface, carries away soil, m partIcular the
valuable top-soil containing humus. After a number of such
heavy showers have fallen on an open piece of arabI,: land all
the top-soil is washed away into the brooks and nvers and
transported to the lowlands and the sea, and nothing remains
but the naked sub-soil. When this has occurred on an estate,
we may say that it has lost most of the capital value represented
by the soil, especially where the sub-soil is old, leached o.ut,
senile. In such cases it is very difficult to induce new vegetatlOn
to grow on this very poor soil. If the sub-soil is not yet worn
out but still juvenile, the task will be easier and the results
more promising; but even then it can ouly be accomplished by
means of hard work and much care.
But, curiously enough, once this completely exhausted sub-
soil has come to the surface, only further erosion can save the
situation. For the layer of senile soil which has come to the
top must be washed away, so as to expose a juv,:nile
as a suitable bearer of a new cycle of vegetatlOn, e1ther wild
or cultivated. Be that as it may, however, as long as there is
natural wood humus left in the soil of the tropics, erosion there
is as great a calamity as it is in temperate climates (U.S.A.).
Furthermore, in certain parts of the archipelago - on the Small
Sunda Islands, for instance - there are clear signs of wind
erosion as well as water erosion. This, too, carries away much
of the top-soil at times, when the land has become thoronghly
dried out, cracked and crumbly after a long East monsoon. Heavy
clay soil which is fairly well able to withstand the action of
rain-water flowing over its surface, falls a prey to strong winds
dnring the dry season and is blown away as dust.
So far we have ouly spoken of impoverishment- and occasional
enrichment - of arable land by the top-soil being carried
away. But the opposite often occurs too. The wind - and
even more frequently runuing water - supplies new soil here
and there by covering certain areas with sand and dust or silt
and clay. Whether the contribution so obtained improves the
land or not, depends on the quality of the new soil-covering
material and this again depends on whether the imported
elements come from a region where surface erosion prevails
generally, i.e., affects the whole surface equally, or from one
where this erosion takes the form of gulleying. In the former case
the silt carried by the water will consist chiefly of fertile top-
soil; in the latter it is as a rule barren material brought to the
surface from some considerable depth. Where the silt is likely
to be fertile, an effort will be made to promote flooding as much
as possible, while keeping it entirely under control by means
of technically well-constructed irrigation works; where it consists
of barren material, precautionary measures will be taken to
prevent flooding as much as may be, and irrigation will be
resorted to but sparingly and with special care.
All factors mentioned hitherto as contributing to the
postponement or prevention of the complete exhaustion of the
wet soil of the tropics are really subsidiary to one radical factor
which may at any time suddeuly bring about a fundamental
wange in the whole situation, namely, the action of young
volcanoes. By this we mean the action of volcanoes that are
young, not in the geological sense o{belonging to the quarternary,
247
in this case the holocene period, but in the sense that they have
been active within the historical period, and preferably so young
that they have been active during the present century - are
active still, in fact.
In the Indies such volcanoes are chiefly found in Java, but
there are also some in Bali and Lombok and on some of the
other Small Sunda Islands, in Celebes, and finally, in certain
parts of Sumatra. These all belong to the type which eject
great quantities of ashes, sand and stones over the surrounding
country. This means thorough rejuvenation of the soil in the
areas concerned.
At first everything in the immediate neighbourhood of the
centre of eruption, on the slopes of the mountain, is in ruins,
buried under all those ejecta. But it is surprising how quicldy
th'e new surface becomes covered with a fresh mantle of vegetation.
A quarter of a century is often sufficient to bring this about.
Tliis fact was noted in connection with the eruption of Krakatau
in I883, of Klut in Ig02 and again in IgIg. If there is no immediate
recurrence of the eruption, the new soil remains extraordinarily
fertile for centuries, to be finally subjected once more to gradual
impoverishment as a result of leaching by tropical rains.
Hence we may fitly apply the old Latin adage to the soil
of the tropics in the more limited sense referred to at the begiuning
of this article: "Igne natura renovatur integra." Lacking that
volcanic fire, the soil would deteriorate completely, whether
slowly or quickly, and the means at man's disposal for
counteracting this process of impoverishment are, after all,
ouly makeshifts, important though they be from our human
standpoint.
Soil conditions actually obtaining in the Netherlands Indies
and, 1mltatis mlltandis, in other tropical areas in Asia and South
America corroborate the views roughly outlined above.
It is no mere fortuitous circumstance that Java is the most
highly developed of all the islands, but the inevitable outcome
of natural conditions. A considerable number of volcanoes
which have been active within recent centuries, or even decades,
have repeatedly brought about complete rejuvenation of the
soil of the surrounding country. Here in Java we find cinchona
and tea plantations - both very exacting cultures - on the
slopes of the and on the plains at their foot - thanks
to the highly developed irrigation system - rice, sugar and
several other crops. But those parts of the island which lie
beyond the sphere of volcanic influence are obviously several
degrees less valnable from the agricultural point of view. Fortun-
ately such areas are comparatively rare in Java.
In Sumatra the distribution is different. There, fine volcanic
areas are in the minority, occurring ouly in the North in the
Battaklands and Deli; in the central portion along the Western
coast and in the highlands of Padang; and in South Sumatra in
the Palembang highlands; but all these added together form but
a small fraction of this great island. Furthermore in comparing
Sumatra with Java, we must remember two thiugs: Firstly,
that the dry East monsoon ouly touches the Southern portion
of Sumatra, and ouly reaches it when much reduced in streugth.
Hence the leaching of the soil is continuous in these regions,
for there is scarcely a spot where an average rainfall lower than
IOO mm. is ever registered for any month of the year whatever.
Secondly, not all volcanic products are of the same nature.
In Sumatra the ejecta often belong to the more "acid" type,
while in Java they are more "basic"; which means that in Sumatra
they contain more silicic acid, in Java more calcium, magnesia,
iron and phosphoric acid. Furthermore, in Java potassium is
found in a more easily assimilable form than in Sumatra. In
short, the ejecta in Java are more fertile and produce better
soil for agricultural purposes than those of Sumatra. If the
reader should be inclined to observe that there are volcanic
areas on the latter island not included in the above list, he
should remember that these are the districts where the acid
ejecta predominate.
From the above it follows - particularly if we consider that
vast areas in Sumatra are entirely outside the range of volcanic
influence - that this island as a whole will never be as fertile
or as intensively cultivated as Java, uuless, indeed, countless
volcanoes become active there and thus rejuvenate and improve
the soil by scattering first-class volcanic ash over it, as for
instance Krakatau did all over the Southernmost portions of
Sumatra, when it erupted in I883. Sixty-five years ago the
Lampong Districts were territory in which there was very little
doing; since I883 this region has revived; it is being developed
agriculturally; European enterprises flourish there and we find
249
immigration from Java to join already prosperous "colonies"
of migrants from that island. The impulse that led to all this
activity was given by the volcano.
Celebes differs in many respects from both Java and Sumatra.
There, too, we find young volcanic areas, chiefly in the North
Eastern peninsula, or the Minahasa, and these produce fertile
soil. The same may be said of the South Western peninsula.
As might be expected, these are the most prosperous and most
densely populated parts of the islaud. The remaining pqrtions,
namely, the central part with its two protrusions extending
North East and South East respectively, possess no volcanoes,
nor any agriculture to speak of - at most coco-nut groves here
and there along the coast - because the soil there does not
encourage agriculture. And the population is much less dense
here than in the Minahasa and the S.S.W. portion of the island.
Now if we look at Borneo and New Gninea - we are considering
ouly the Netherlands section of the latter - we find that these
two islands are entirely devoid of volcanoes. No need to, search
for juvenile volcanic soil-types there, for there are none. Nowhere
is the soil of such a character that it could be used without
previous special preparation to grow food crops for a number
of consecutive years. There are areas that present the necessary
physical characteristics but all the soil has reached an advanced
state of senility as a result of continuous leaching. Rubber
trees and the like demand very little from their surroundings
and will grow on the recently deposited alluvial soil as it is,
but in almost all other cases a crop needs manure, either animal
or artificial. Under these circumstances ouly crops that furnish
highly valuable products can be made ".to pay, and even then
there comes a time when previously effective measures prove
vain. A case in point is the now extinct tobacco-growing industry
in British North Borneo. Where at an earlier date the jungle
was forced to make room for plantations, the jungle has once
more made good its claim to the land.
To comment on all the other islands of the archipelago would
lead us far beyond the scope of this article. We will mention
ouly one or two points. It is interesting to note that in the early
days the Netherlands United East India Company settled in
the Moluccas, on the islands of Ternate, Tidore, Ambon and
Banda. The object was to cultivate valuable spices such as
cloves, nutmeg and mace. Curiously enough, all these islands
are volcanic. Burn, Ceram and Misool are much larger, but
not volcanic, and these the company ignored.
In the Small Sunda Islands group we have Bali dominated
by Mount Batur, Lombok by Mount Rinjani. These two volcanoes
have provided their respective territories with first-rate juvenile
soil, on which has arisen a dense, prosperous and highly cultivated
population. Sumba, on the other hand, has had very little
volcanic influence, its dreary, desert-like wastes being composed
chiefly of bare, calcareons rocks. All there is of good soil is
washed or blown from the highlands into the lowlands and
hence we find, besides the very poor, utterly deserted areas
mentioned above, also fairly prosperous plains.
The above may be summarized as follows: It is true that
a fall of rain may be a blessing to an agricultural area parched
from drought, but it is equally true that in the tropical zone
in the narrower sense of the term - the zone in which the
Netherlands Indies are situated - too much rain is bad and,
further, that abundant rainfall is tile cause of continually
increasing impoverishment of the soil. The only regeneration
of the soil that spells radical improvement is that produced
by volcanoes. Without active volcanoes the future can ouly
mean retrogression. But retrogression may be greatly retarded
and counteracted by human action. This last is the splendid
task of the science of agriculture. Much has already been achieved
along this line, and probably much more will be achieved in
the future.