l6 TlMEHRI. 
not cover their feet, the feet are no dirtier than our hands. 
And so there is quite as much dirt in a loaf of bread as 
ever there is in a ton of sugar. 
The next step is the packing of the sugar. What an 
improvement is there here ! Twenty years ago the sugar 
was packed in unsightly and unwieldy hogsheads, which 
for some occult reason were lined with blue paper, which 
was never seen by the consumer. Now the sugar goes 
in bags, all of which are filled to exactly the same weight. 
This department still has very much room for improve- 
ment, for, as far as looks go, there is very little to choose 
between the old fashioned hogshead and the modern 
bag, but the bag is much handier, and moreover costs 
very much less. 
Having made a hasty run through the sugar factory, let 
us return and see what becomes of the megass. 
Twenty years ago, it would have been received by a 
gang of ' boxmen', who would have packed it in wheeled 
trucks, and shoved it along an elevated level plane ; it 
would have been dropped into the logies, there it would 
have been packed tight, to remain till it got dry, when, 
if it had not been burnt by spiteful labourers or carpenters 
out of work, it would have been carried on women's 
heads to the stoke hole and finally burnt under the 
copper- wall. 
Now it is received on a carrier that hangs from one wheel, 
and this carrier is so light that one man can run about 
with it with the greatest ease ; this tips the megass over a 
hole which leads to the grates of the boilers, and a man 
shoves the megass down to its last home. 
Twenty years ago the megass was lifted breast high and 
shoved into a hole. The strongest man could not make 
