// Create a text area with some initial text
JTextArea textarea = new JTextArea("Initial Text");

// Create a text area with some initial text and a default number of rows and columns.
// This number of rows and columns controls the preferred width and height of the component;
// each row and column is rougly the size of an M in the current font.
int rows = 20;
int cols = 30;
textarea = new JTextArea("Initial Text", rows, cols);