http://jdbc.postgresql.org/documentation/head/query.html#fetchsize-example

Changing code to cursor mode is as simple as setting the fetch size of the Statement to the appropriate size. Setting the fetch size back to 0 will cause all rows to be cached (the default behaviour).

// make sure autocommit is off
conn.setAutoCommit(false);
Statement st = conn.createStatement();

// Turn use of the cursor on.
st.setFetchSize(50);
ResultSet rs = st.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM mytable");
while (rs.next())
{
   System.out.print("a row was returned.");
}
rs.close();

// Turn the cursor off.
st.setFetchSize(0);
rs = st.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM mytable");
while (rs.next())
{
   System.out.print("many rows were returned.");
}
rs.close();

// Close the statement.
st.close();