But situated as the Javan peasantry are, there is but little inducement to invest capital in agriculture, and much labour must be unprofitably wasted: as property is insecure, there can be no desire of accumulation; as food is easily procured, there can be no necessity for vigorous labour. There exists, as a consequence of this state of nature and of the laws, few examples of great affluence or abject distress among the peasantry; no rich men, and no common beggars. Under the native governments and the Regents of the Dutch Company, there were no written leases or engagements binding for a term of years; nor could such contracts well be expected to be formed with an officer, who held his own place by so unstable a tenure as the will of a despot. The cultivator bargained with the _Búkul_ or _Petíng'gi_ for a season or for two crops, had his land measured off by the latter, and paid a stipulated portion of the produce either in money or in kind. When the crop had arrived at maturity, the cultivator, if his engagement was for so much of the produce in kind, cut down his own share, and left that of the landlord on the ground. The proportion of the crop paid as rent varied with the kind of land, or produce, and the labour employed by the cultivator. In the _sáwah_ lands, the share demanded by the landlord rarely exceeded one-half, and might fall as low as one-fourth, according as the quality of the soil was good or bad, or the labour employed in irrigating or otherwise preparing it was greater or less. In _tégal_ lands, the rent paid varied from one-third to one-fifth of the produce; a diminution to be attributed to the uncertainty of the crop, and the necessity of employing more labour to realize an equal produce than on the other species of cultivation. In cases where there was a second crop of less value than the principal rice or maize crop, no additional demand was made upon the additional grain reaped by the farmer.