3 
canes to be easily griped by the mill-rollers. 
Four men with tomahawks cut the canes close 
to the ground, and the cane was sent its full 
length to the mill. 
In well tilled ground, it was out of the 
question to think of allowing bullock-drays or 
even horse-drays to go over the fields for the 
canes ; but as the Traction engine with its 
trucks was waiting on the road, in no case more 
than 10 chains distant from any of the canes, 
bullock-drays or horse-drays were not required. 
I tried to take the canes to the road in bundles, 
by means of an endless rope driven by the 
traction engine, but found it far from satis- 
factory. Taking the canes from the field to the 
road cost not less than £1 10s. per acre ; 
whereas a light tramway or some other 
plan might do it for 15s., per acre. When the 
canes were on the road , the Traction engine could 
for £1 per day take all the canes to the mill 
yard that the mill was able to grind in that 
time, and with a little extra expense could have 
doubled or trebled that w r ork. It was partly 
to make use of that extra power that I tried to 
make the engine pull the canes off the field. 
Steam can never be applied to cut the tops 
off the canes, as it would be impossible to make 
it disci iminate between the ripe and the unripe 
part of the cane ; but I see no difficulty in 
applying it to cutting the canes at the root, by 
which means a considerable saving might be 
effected. 
The grinding of the canes, and the boiling of 
the juice, is paid for in Jamaica, not by the 
quantity of canes, but by the number of gal- 
lons of juice. The usual price that each man 
receives is 3d. per clarifier of 600 gallons, the 
engine-driver and head sugar-boiler 4d. 
Five men lift the canes from the mill-yard, 
where they have been thrown by the drays, and 
place them on the feeding-board of the mill j 
two men stand one on each side of the mill, 
pull the canes from the feeding-board, and push 
them in between the mill-rollers j two men 
remove the crushed cane, or begasse, sometimes 
by means of a truck and tramway ; but I have 
Been 12 women engaged in carrying it away in 
baskets on their heads. A boy attends to the 
juice-strainers; one engine-driver, one fireman 
for the engine boiler ; one man at the clarifiers ; 
one head boiler and four men at the battery ; 
two firemen at the battery ; as they fire with 
dry megasse, it is almost constant work, so 
the one relieves the other now and then. The 
negro’s idea of perfection in a fireman is de- 
scribed in a fable they have of a man made of 
iron, who, at some imaginary estate, was in the 
habit of getting inside of the furnace and 
shaking the fire up when it burnt badly. Two 
men are also employed in removing the sugar 
from the coolers to the hogsheads, 
which are placed in the curing house, 
where the molasses drains from the 
sugar, and runs at once to the distillery, 
no attempt being made to reboil the molasses. 
Six women carry the dry begasse from the sheds 
in which it had been stored from the 
previous crop, to the battery furnace. These 
women are paid 2d. per clarifier. In Queens- 
land I used a cane-carrier, driven by the engine, 
to feed the mill ; it consisted of an endless caain 
of boards, moving towards the mill at the same 
speed as the surface of the sugar mill rollers ; 
on it the canes were laid, and I found that that 
moving table had a great effect in keeping the 
men up to their work, since, if at any time ic 
was seen advancing uncovered with canes, it at 
once showed a neglect of duty. The canes be- 
ing thrown from the trucks of the Traction 
engine, lay in large heaps and close to the cane 
carrier, very little work was required to put 
them on the cane carrier ; two men attended 
to that, and one man directed the canes in their 
passage trough the mill. The begasse fell from 
the mill into a truck on a tramway, which one 
man managed ; a boy kept the strainers clean; 
one engine-driver ; no fireman was required for 
the engine boiler, because I used a multitubular 
boiler, which enabled the waste heat from the 
battery to supply the engine with steam ; one 
man at the clarifiers. At the battery, force 
pumps, driven by steam, were used, instead of 
the old fashioned ladles, which enabled two 
men to do all the work required. One fireman 
at the battery furnace, also two men at tho' 
centrifugal machines, who also put the sugar 
in bags for the market. The molasses was re- 
boiled twice, and the remainder could have 
been sent to the distillery. A comparison of 
the distilleries is not interesting, since a well 
arranged distillery could be managed by two 
men, either in Jamaica or Queensland. 
Summary oe tee Pboceeeingi-. 
Cost of One Acre of Plant Canes in Jamaica. 
Bookkeeper lining cane-holes ... £0 5 0 
* Digging cane-holes ... ... 3 10 0 
Planting canes ... ... ... 0 10 0 
First weeding and moulding ... 0 10 0 
Second weeding ... ... ... 100 
First trashing ... ... ... 10 0 
Second ditto ... ... ... 0 10 0 
Third ditto ... ... ... 0 10 0 
Cutting and carting canes to the 
mill yard 2 10 0 
£10 5 0 
Cost of an Acre of Plant Canes in Queens- 
land. 
Steam ploughing and harrowing, 
including wood and water and 
oil for engine . . ; ... £018 0 
Ploughing furrows ... ... 0 2 0 
Planting canes and maize ... 010 0 
Carried forward 
1 10 0 
* In a book called the “ Practical Sugar Planter, 1 ' 
published in the year 1848, by Leonard Wray, Esq., the 
cost of digging cane-holes and planting canes in 
Jamaica is set down at £5 per acre, which is JSI more 
than I have stated, 
