CS.3.13.2 Analiza la participación de los miembros de la sociedad (mujeres,

Playen, Patuk), whereas most of the Java cattle belonged to farmers from Gunung Sewu subdistricts (Tepus, Mulo, Paliyan; Heshusius, 1926: 45).

had developed whereby cattle from the northern parts of the regency were sent to the Gunung Sewu to graze during the dry season. Fodder crops were not grown.

During the day cattle were taken to the hills to graze. In the evening they were driven back to their stables near the houses. In the hills they browsed on various natural

g r a s s e s 2 0 including alang-alang. These grasses were all highly praised as fodder of

good quality. Stretches of alang-alang were burned every dry season to stimulate the growth of young grass (cf. Danes, 1909: 2 5 6 ) 2 1 . Lantana leaves were also palatable to the animals. Cattle were also grazed more or less legally in the state forests.

Table 5.1 Livestock trends in Gunungkidul District, 1892-1957

Year Cattle Water Horses Population Buffaloes/cattle

buffaloes per capita

1892 40,108 34,658 2337 119,624 0.63 1902 39,649 28,145 1714 181,476 0.37 1905 38,665 18,079 2023 212,433 0.27

1938 70,000 na na 350,000 0.20

1957 69,494 5732 1883 513,777 0.15 Note: na = not available

Source: Koloniaal Verslag, 1892, 1902,1905; Instituut voor Volksvoeding, 1941; BPS Yogyakarta, 1958.

During the first half of this century, the number of cattle and water buffaloes in Gunungkidul District remained more or less constant, whereas the human population grew rapidly (Table 5.1). Clearly, food crop production increasingly competed with grazing land and prevented a further increase in livestock numbers. At the same time, the number of water buffaloes decreased in favour of catde, a general trend in J a v a 2 2 .

Although these district-wide trends probably did not affect the Gunung Sewu to the same extent as other parts of the d i s t r i c t 2 3 , the above figures imply an overall increase in production pressure on land.

20. Species commonly mentioned are krikit (fanicum reptans) and krepak {Andropogon parviflorus). 21. Alang-alang was also used as thatching material for the dwellings of the people and the stables for the cattle. Nowadays alang-alang thatches have been largely replaced by tiles.

22. In Java upland soils were commonly ploughed with water buffaloes until they were replaced by cattle which were better adapted to upland conditions (Leurink, 1946: 356).

23. An alternative hypothesis might be that the decline in water buffaloes predominantly affected the densely populated areas in the Wonosari plain and along the Oyo valley, while the increase in cattle occurred in the Gunung Sewu, where grazing land was still sufficiently available.

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5.6 Trees

During the early 1900s many trees used for timber and firewood were still to be found on farmland despite large scale deforestation during the preceding decades (cf. van Valkenburg & White, 1923: 132, 139). Tree growth was pushed back to more remote and steeper sites. There was still some regeneration of non-teak species such as singon (Albizzia chinensis), kukun (Actinophora fragrans), walangan {Eryngium foetidum), pule {Alstonia scholaris), bintaos (Wrightia javanica), kemldkd (Phyllantus emblica). It

seems that there were relatively more trees in the southern zone of the Gunung Sewu. In the desa near the coast, especially in the eastern part, natural, non-teak forests still occurred in the late 1930s over a width of 3 to 4 km (Instituut voor Volksvoeding, 1941: 5)24.

Charcoal making was an important cash-earning activity for the population. People could still use the wood of natural trees on their own land and they were also allowed to take natural, non-teak trees, such as kukun, pldsd {Butea monosperma), and manding (Acacia villosa) from the forest as the forest service considered these 'jungle woods' to be of no value. Particularly kesambi (Schleichera oleosa) was highly favoured in the charcoal trade. However, tree planting for charcoal making, or for family firewood or fodder supply hardly occurred.

The situation with respect to building material was somewhat different, particularly after forest management had been taken over by the colonial forest service. Teak trees scattered over the fields and yards of the population, believed to be remains of the previously much more extensive forests, were the responsibility of the forest service in as far as it could not unquestionably be proven that the trees had not been planted by the villagers (Dingemans, 1926: 84). Thus, the growing of teak was, perhaps not officially but in practice, entirely monopolised by the service. The population was thus discouraged from growing teak because in the end the wood might be claimed by the forest service. The forest police also feared that allowing the population to grow teak would jeopardise their own control over the forests, enabling the population to claim stolen wood to be their own. Although the prohibition of teak planting by the population does not seem to have been official policy, zealous forest guards or even the village administrations did not want to take any risks (Soedarwono Hardjosoediro, pers. 24. Administratively they were classified as agricultural land belonging to the respective desa.

comm.). The population of the Gunung Kidul, however, preferred teak to all other species for building their houses. They kept on cutting the teak in the forest illicitly, or stole it from the depots or transports (Dingemans, 1926: 83).

In the delineation of the teak forests the smaller forest areas, which could not be amalgamated into larger units, were written off, and left out of the areas earmarked for production. These patches of land were henceforward designated as tanah AB'^^. They were all located in the Gunung Sewu (Dienst van het Boschwezen, 1933: 14). It had been envisaged that any agricultural land occupied by the population within the boundaries of the forest area would be exchanged for stretches of forest land that had been written off (Bellers, 1925: 371). Occupants of tanah AB near Legundi confirmed that this had been the case for their land. In all three hamlets, these patches of written- off forest were occupied and cleared26 by the population in the 1930s, permitting agriculture to expand further in the area.

Tree plandng on the house lots (pekarangan) has been common practice in the Gunung Sewu for a long period, as much as elsewhere in Java. Coconut palms were originally the main trees, or at least the most striking ones planted around the dwellings of the populadon (cf. Junghuhn, 1850: 342, 345; van Valkenburg & White, 1923:

132)27. In the 1930's the house lots in the Gunung Sewu were found to be large. Since substantial areas were planted to cassava or maize they were termed tegalan-yaids, (tegalanerven). People also cultivated various tuber crops along the edges of the fields and many kinds of creepers including various beans and Dioscorea species in the hedges. Many perennial crops were grown in the pekarangan. In the two subdistricts Panggang and Paliyan, coconut, jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) and kapok (Ceiba pentandra) were the most common species grown, making up three quarters of all trees.

25. AB is an abbreviation for the Dutch Afgeschreven Bos, written-off forest, a term which is still used on