200 
SUGAR MILLS. 
The plants were growing to the height of seven or eight feet, and 
three or four inches in diameter. The mills in which the sugar 
was expressed appeared to be of a similar construction to one figured 
by Dr. Buchanan in his work on India. * It consisted of two up- 
right cylinders of wood or stone, worked by buffaloes yoked to a 
long beam passing from the top of one of the cylinders. It was fed 
by introducing the cane between the cylinders whilst in action. 
The juice thus expressed was conducted by a channel into a large re- 
servoir, and was thence transferred into boilers, whence having been 
sufficiently inspissated, it was conveyed into pail-shaped vessels about 
three feet deep and two wide, for the purpose of being transported 
to the refiners or to the market. The sugar thus obtained is very 
coarse, but undergoes some subsequent process of refinement that 
we had no opportunity of witnessing. It was sent to our boats of 
various degrees of purity and colour, but seldom of a very fine quality. 
A very white powder sugar, much used by Europeans at Canton, is 
pulverised sugar candy. The manufacture of the last article is said 
by De Guignes rj- to be confined in a good measure to Chin-tcheou, 
the capital of Fokien. A better kind than any made in the country 
is imported from Cochin-china. 
The buffaloes that work the mills live upon the refuse of the sugar 
cane, and thrive upon it in the same manner as our English dray- 
horses fatten on the grains of the brewhouse. These animals, like 
those of Java, betrayed the greatest alarm at our approach. 
The sugar cane plantations are irrigated by the mills so well described 
and accurately figured by the late Sir George Staunton ; and are 
equally remarkable for simplicity, ingenuity, and efficiency. It is im- 
possible to view these machines without giving the Chinese credit for 
not only using great skill, but much mathematical precision in their 
* Journey from Madras through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar, by Dr. Buchanan, 
f De Guignes, tome iii. p. 261 . According to the same author, a picul of common 
sugar sells for from four to six taels ; of China sugar candy, from seven to fifteen taels ; 
and Cochin-china, from eight to fifteen. 
