156 



SUGAR. 



the workmen are kept in constant employment until the canes near at 

 hand are all cut, and another move becomes necessary.* 



We thus find, in the records of the ancient arts of Hindostan, roller 

 mills for crushing cane, both vertical and horizontal, which are barely 

 improved amongst the same people at the present day, and are exact 

 prototypes of the machinery now in use. 



The first mills used in more modern times were known as edge- 

 mills, and are now chiefly used for crushing oil-seeds, apples (in 

 cider districts), and in tanneries. A large heavy wheel, generally of 

 stone, was made to revolve vertically upon its edge in a small circular 

 area some 8 or 10 feet in diameter, by cattle or wind power. The 

 pieces of cane were strewed in the concave path of the wheel, and the 

 juice flowed away by a channel formed for the purpose. Pere Lafitau 

 relates the donation to the Convent of St. Benoit by William II., 

 King of Sicily, of such a mill for crushing sugar-canes, along with 

 its privileges, workmen and dependencies, which remarkable gift 

 bears the date 1166.t 



In the next century we find mention of the use of vertical wooden 

 rollers in Europe, the introduction of which is generally attributed 

 to Gonzales de Velosa. In the fifteenth century their use crept to 

 Madeira and the Brazils. Early in the century following roller mills 

 were established in Hayti and in other places contemporaneously with 

 the spread of cane cultivation. The old vertical wooden mill is still 

 to be found in many places in the West Indies and elsewhere ; and 

 more than one may now be seen at no great distance from Port-of- 

 Spain, Trinidad. 



From wooden rollers to those of stone and then of iron the progres- 

 sion was unavoidable. Many examples of stone roller vertical mills 

 are still in existence, while vertical mills with iron rollers are, even 

 now, comparatively common. Ligon states that when he visited Bar- 

 bados in 1647, the planters were ignorant of many things, and 

 amongst others he mentions " the true way of covering their rollers 

 with plates or bars of ii*on." J This information, it appears, they 

 obtained from Fernambuck (Pernambuco), in Brazil, whence they had 

 gotten plants." 



Cattle gave place, subsequently, to wind and water power, both of 

 which are still largely used in remote districts. As recently as 1848 

 a mechanical engineer found it necessary to call the attention of the 

 planters of Trinidad to the superior advantages of steam-power, 

 which at that time seemed not to be fully appreciated. § The use of 

 steam has enabled boiling houses to be erected, and consequently 

 estates to be established, in situations where it had been impossible 

 to do so previously. Its employment as the motive power in estates' 

 boiling houses may now be said to be general, although it offers a 



* Sir George Staunton's ' Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great 

 Britain to the Emperor of China,' 1797. 



t ' History des Decouvertes et Conquetes des Portugais.' 



X 'History of Barbados,' 1650. See also Houghton's 'Husbandry and Trade,' in 

 the papers issued from Friday, June 17 (No. cccviii), to Friday, September 2 

 (No. cccxix), 1698. 



§ See advertisement and correspondence in the * Port-of-Spain Gazette ' for that 

 year. 



