TRANSACTIONS. 239 



for their own use, with some to spare to their neighbors. 

 The sugar mills are rude and of small dimensions, consist- 

 ing, in part, of little more than the rollers for grinding the 

 cane, which are made of seasoned oak timbers, and stand 

 generally in the open air. A cheap shed suffices for a pro- 

 tection of the kettles, which are common iron ones. 



Lieut. Hcrndon, U. S. Navy, in his explorations from 

 Lima on the Pacific, across the Andes to Para, on the 

 Amazon in Brazil, frequently speaks of the sugar cane, and 

 sugar making. So also does Lieut. Gibbon. 



Lieut. Hcrndon visited a plantation near Tarma in Peru, 

 and says: "Sugar cane is extensively cultivated. Two 

 men to cut and two to carry will supply a mill which con- 

 sists of three upright woodeii rollers in a rude wooden 

 frame. The rollers are ragged and placed close to each 

 other. The head of the middle one extends above the 

 frame, and is squared, so as to allow the shipping on it a 

 long beam, to the end of which an ox is harnessed, which 

 walking in a circle, gives motion to the rollers. The end 

 of the cane is placed between the rollers and is drawn in 

 and crushed by them ; a wooden trough is placed below to 

 catcli the juice. Such a mill will produce fifteen hundred 

 pounds of juice in a day. These fifteen hundred pounds of 

 juice will give from two hundred and fifty to three hundred 

 pounds of sugar, which is worth, in Tarma, twelve and a 

 half cents per pound. 



" Sugar cane is the most useful and valuable product of 

 that section of the country. The leaves of the cane when 

 green serve for food for cattle ; when dry to make wrapping 

 for the candy and sugar. The crushed stalk is used as fuel 

 for the oveli. The hogs fatten on the foam at the top of 

 the boiling. From the first boiling is made the candy or 

 brown sugar cake, which is eaten after dinner by almost all 

 classes. It is worth six and a quarter cents the pound in 

 Tarma. From one thousand pounds of juice boiled ten 

 hours, is made four hundred pounds of candy." 



