62 SUGAR 



manufacturing methods as some of the neighbouring 

 islands ; nevertheless, it produces Muscovado of a par- 

 ticularly famous quality, and its leading factories are 

 equipped with modern appliances for bringing this 

 branch of the industry up to a high standard of develop- 

 ment. But you will be the better able to appreciate 

 the general progress in sugar-production that has been 

 made throughout the British West Indies, by no means 

 excluding Barbados, if I show you first a most old- 

 fashioned mill, and afterwards one of the most up-to- 

 date factories in these Colonies. . 



CHAPTER XVI 



A VISIT TO AN OLD-WORLD SUGAR-MILL 



You are out in the open country, standing on a little 

 natural platform, round which cane-fields switchback 

 over an undulating plain to the coast on one hand, 

 and billow over low hills on the other. The platform 

 is occupied by a windmill and an unpretentious shed, 

 situated within a stone's- throw of one another, the 

 limited stretch of ground between these buildings 

 affording generous accommodation for little heaps of 

 sugar-cane, and for a few odd-job workfolk. Such a 

 peaceful, dreamy atmosphere hovers about the whole 

 scene — no wonder you look so disbelieving when I tell 

 you that you are in the very heart of a sugar estate, 

 on one of the most strenuous days of its life. 



But watch the great arms of the mill ; one minute 

 they are whirling round at racing speed, the next, 

 they are lazily, drowsily lagging on their course, but 



