914 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[June 1, 1892. 
^’he creamy sugar which we have seen boiled and 
manipulated for the next process is poured into 
moulds made of starch. We find ourselves in the midst 
of stacks upon stacks of those square nionlda, flanked 
by bench after bench of men and boy moulders. 
Wherever labour is divided by machinery or hand, 
one operation dependent upon another, tliere is n<> 
time for idleness. The machine, human or other- 
wise, must be kept going. Hero moulds are filled and 
emptied with a steady and effective monotony, flu 
one aide the sugar cream is poured into the moulds 
from handy funnels; 011 the other, when solidified, 
resultant creams are collected for ultimate c(»ating 
with chocolate. Leaving the moulding rooms we 
seem to drift to and fro into various otlier departments 
wljere thousands of trained dainty fingers are giving 
the tinishing touches to fancy forms of creams and 
plain chocolates that gradually develop into all kinds 
of boxes, from the cheap popular little honhon boxes 
to the handsome and artistically arrayed and decorated 
cabinet of mixed sweets fit for the notice of a 
Princess. 
And now once more in the fresh air we make the 
acquaintance of the ongities and boilers all on the 
most perfect scale, even to the oldest mechanical 
servant of the firm, a great old beam engine of the 
melancholy mad-elephaiit kind described by Dickens. 
It has been in use over fifty years, and in its present 
site was erected the tiist engine that Boulton and 
Watt introduced to Bristol. The old-fashioned but 
powerful engine has been supplemented l>y many 
others. It takes eight powerful sets to drive the 
works ill these days. Tney would be a surprise to 
the writer of a paragrapli in the and Aoncir// 
Post of June fi, 17fiH, could he onco more visit the 
glimpses of the moon. “Since the great improve- 
ment of the steam engine,” ho wrote on that particular 
date, “ it is astonishing to what a variety of manu- 
factiires this useful macliine has been applied; yot it 
does not a little excite our surprise that one is used 
for the trirting object of grinding chocolate ; it is, 
however, a fact, or at least we are credibly informed, 
that Afr. Pry of Bristol, the maker of the famous 
(Ihiirchmaira chocolate, has in his new manufactory 
one of these engines ump^o'e^ by Air. Jones, an 
ingenious millwright of that city) for the sole purpose 
of manufacturing chocolate and cocoa. Either the 
consumption of this little article must far exceed our 
ideas or, which wo think much more likely, a very 
large portion of what is drunk in this kingdom must 
be made liy him.” This is the very thought that 
occurs to us after walking for hours over only one 
of the four main factories that rise aloft tier upon 
tier, witli tlieir tall smokestack.giving oinployment to 
more than two thousand people. Irys had been 
established some half a century when the ^orfnch 
paragraphist quipped about the “little article of 
cocoa, and yot with four factories cw hhe and several 
outsiders there is still room for competition in the 
mipply of the United Kingdom, which in 1891 paid 
duty on 21,601,825 lb. 1 ? • • 
The water supply for the eight seta of engmea la 
obtained from the river Froine which runs umler the 
factories a prisoner beneath stone arches, the old 
fltoryofthe bright and cheery brook arrested on its 
way through pleasaiit meadows for various uidustnal 
purposes, dammed up to turn a in 111, then released tor a 
brief freedom to be the playmate of village children, 
to floating tiny boats and murmuring beneath ancient 
brideoB, finally to bo caught and imprisoned under 
city roads and oomnelled to iced the boilers of hot and 
steaming engino houses. If the Fronie were sentient, 
the strong child of the Avon might bo content to 
know that it was helping to produce the pretty boxes 
of chocolate creams that come to happy cliildren at 
Christmas time, not to mention those camsters of 
cocoa extract that give wliolesoine drink to thousands 
of busy people. “ Wo shall want a larger supply than 
the Fronie can give ns,” remarks our guide, when 
the new factory is finished,” and he draws our atten- 
tion enpai-imit to a block of buildings in coiirso of 
erection. Here we have an opportunity of noting the 
principle upon which all the factories are constructed. 
Each floor is supported by iron pillars, with girders 
and cross girders, the spaces between the girders being 
filled with slate pavements; where atone is used it is 
Cornish eranite. The completion of tho new factory 
will iiiereaao tho iiiimher of hands employed to 
between two and three thousand men, women and girls. 
It is a surprising story, the multifarious operations 
tliat belon ' to the production of a cup of cocoa or a 
chocolate cream. 
Incidentally we ought to mention that traversing one 
of those factories and parts of the other four, making 
excursions over bridges from street to street, wo have 
noted with pleasure evidences of the care both physi- 
cal and moral which the firm takes of its work- 
people, more particularly of the younger members of 
their staff. More than once we have passed through 
moal-rooms and school-rooms. The tiriri provides the 
means of cooking in the factories, and the great 
majority of tho young people only leave the works to 
buy their daily food or to supplement the tea and 
dinner baskets with some trines from the adjacent 
markets. In one of the main factories we came upon 
a largo and handsome lecture room which is also once 
a week used as a night school, oiico for boys and 
once for girls, the firm providing them with teachers. 
Every morning at a quarter to nine, one of tho 
seniors of the finn attends in the lecture room and 
reads a chapter in the Uihlc;and a hymn is also read. 
The hall is occasionally lent to them for meetings 
of their own, the employers and employed are evi- 
dently on tho best and most friendly terms with 
each other. There are also sick clubs and other 
organizations of ercat uBcfulness connected with tlio 
factories, and indeed tho whole concern is conducted 
as if the persons engaged belong to a special com- 
munity outside and apart from tho busy city to which 
it has given the name of “ the cocoa metropolis.” 
We have already seen how tho growth of great 
industries has compellod manufacturers to extend their 
liiisinesscs in directions never contemplated at the 
outset. Fry's is a remarkable instance. Besides 
chocolate makers, they are engineers, hoxmakers, 
carpenters, tinworkors, and arc concerned in various 
other occupations. Beyond the factories we have 
described, we found ourselves driving in cabs and tramp- 
ing through tho ancient ways, visiting other concerns 
that belong to them and are an integral part of their 
main biisiuosH. Our fii-st visit was toWapping, where 
they have a steam saw-mill with all kinds of iniplo- 
iiients, circular, whip and other saws, planers, nailers, 
and wiiat not on the newest principles. The nailing- 
machines are ingenious contrivances ; they work auto- 
matically, are fed with nails and supplied with boxes 
in sections which, passed from hand to hand, from 
machine to machine, are completed with remarkable 
rapidity. There is a new saw here, circular and 
pliable, which cuts two planks at one operation and 
does not need to he fed ; one man gives it occasional 
attention. Fenced off in the mill are several printing 
machines for labelling tho box lids. Itow many 
separate packets these boxes are made to hold it 
would be difficult to say, hut the firm in its Wapping 
carpentry turn out some thousand dozens of th.ni 
every week. After inspecting the mechanical work 
of the iiiiil, we entered the store-rooms to find what 
almost seemed to be acres of boxes ready for use. 
From Wapping we drove to the county paol. It 
is many years since the present writer visited this 
once formidable lioiiso of detention, the occasion 
being the arrest of Sir William Don, while that 
“tall monumental warning” of reckless expenditure 
(as ho called himself in one of his local sp^eoebes) 
was fulfilling an engagment at tho Bristol Theatre 
in King Street. Those were the days before the 
abolition of arrest for debt, when the bailiff though 
shorn of much of his power was still a formidable 
offioer. Sir William was a good deal put out when 
he was not allowed to finish tho play m winch he 
was acting ; but great sympathy was shown for him, 
and he found exceptional accommodation at tho 
castle, where the Governor, Mr. Gardener, gave up 
to him one of liis own private rooms and made his 
brief incarceration as pleasant to liim as possible. 
This included a very agreeable luncheon tho next 
day, at which I was a guest. Sir Willing related 
to us some of his numerous adventures. One may 
be excused after all these years for feeling a oiirio 
