TEE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



457 



A Chat with Mr Anthony Wilkinson. 



SUGAR, LOCUSTS, AND FORESTRY. 

 (By Ergatbs). 



MR. ANTHONY WILKINSON'S name 

 is well known throughout Natal and 

 beyond. Not only is Mr. Wilkinson a 

 well known and successful colonist, bat 

 he is also recognised as one who, by com- 

 munications to the Press, and by other 

 means, is actively desirous to forward the 

 agricultural interests of the Colony. His 

 father was a shipowner, and Mr. Anthony 

 Wilkinson, provided with a good lieu- 

 tenant, at the age of nineteen w is in com- 

 mand of one of his father s ships. Bur, 

 the seafaring life palled after ten years. 

 He went to' Illinois and b. gan farming. 

 He gave it up for two reasons : firstly, 

 labour difficulties ; and, secondly, because 

 he was medically informed that the 

 malaria of the District had got into his 

 system, and that it would be necessary for 

 him to get a complete change of climate. 

 After some time in England he resolved 

 to go and look up a brother who was in 

 Natal. This brother subsequently joined 

 the late Mr. James Raw in partnership. 

 The immense business of the firmi tran- 

 sacted in Bills will be remembered by 

 all old colonists. It was a miniature 

 South Sea Bubble. On Mr. Anthony 

 Wilkinson's voyage out to the Cape, as a 

 passenger in the Windermere, the sailors 

 mutinied, and the ship's officers were 

 BO severely handled that they were unable 

 to navigate the ship. This was done by 

 Mr. Wilkinson. After lookinground Natal, 

 Mr. Wilkinson settled where he now is. 

 The year was 1856. He paid 6s. 8d. per 

 acre : now the land in his neighbourhood 

 ranges in value between £12 and £20 per 

 acre. At first he thought he would try 

 sheep, then he inclined towards coffee, 

 but the sight of a splendid crop of sugar- 

 cane at Isipingo determined him to go in 

 for sugar. 



The Mill. 



In 1858 he put up his first mill— one 

 worked by cattle. In 1860 he erected a 

 steam-power mill and a still. A very full 

 account of the process of sugar refining 

 having already appeared in the Jounud 

 (the Natal Estates refinery at the South 



Coast Junction), I shall touch only on the 

 points which most attracted my notice. 

 The firing of the boilers was, perhaps, the 

 most noteworthy feature. The megass 

 goes direct from the rollers to the fur- 

 naces, which might be described as brick 

 passages, about 12 feet long, leading to 

 the boilers. The composition of green 

 m-gass as it leaves the rollers is about 51 

 parts of water, and 49 parts of woody 

 fibre and sugar. The furnace is fed with 

 the green megass and atmospheric air, 

 prevfously heated in a chamber to a 

 temperature of 200 to 250 degrees by the 

 gasses escaping to the chimney. The fiie 

 in the first instance is started with some 

 dry fuel and coal, and a little coal is fed 

 at intervals to maintain the heat of fur- 

 nace to an orange colour, or 2,00!) to 2,200 

 degrees during the day. The water, 

 which is half the weight of fuel, is de- 

 composed, contains the right proportions 

 of hydrogen and oxygen to burn fiercely, 

 the woody fibre and sugar of coarse burn- 

 ing easily. All the gases are consumed 

 by the time they leave the furnace, and 

 are then ready to come in c intact with the 

 boiler or other condensing surfaces. The 

 old-fashioned way, which is still mostly 

 in vogue in Natal, is to dry the megass in 

 the sun, wnd when the sun is abs -nt, to 

 stack it in sheds, and skin the outer 

 surfaces as the mass becomes dry, which 

 entails a lot of labo ir, and finally it is 

 fed into furnaces too low in temperature 

 to decompose the water. By fe menta- 

 tion the megass also loses the residue of 

 sugar it contained — a very inflainmalde 

 constituent. The economy is not only in 

 fuel but in labour, for, by this system, 

 there is only light work for one Indian, 

 whereas by the common method there 

 would be exhausting work for three men. 

 One of the best indications of only partiul 

 combustion is smoke, and of smoko I s 

 hardly a sign while at the mill. The 

 system was invented, and has been 

 patented, by Mr. Wilkinson's son, Mr. 

 Gilbert Wilkinson. Here, for the first 

 time, I saw the Yaryan evaporat^or. 

 There are only three in Natal. The 



