Whatever may have been the precise period of the commencement of the English sugar-manufacture in Barbadoes, Anderson states that in 1027, end for several years later, the Portuguese supplied most parts of Europe with Brazil sugars. About 1650 the British planters in Barbadoes appear to have been realising property very rapidly by the raising of sugar ; they having obtained a few years before, valuable information from Brazil respecting the culture and process of extracting sugar from the cane. In 1676 the sugar trade of Barbadoes is said to have attained Its maximum, being then capable of employing 400 vessels, averaging 150 tons burden.
Cul:ire:ion of the Sugar-Canc.—The botanical characters of the sugar cane are given under SACCIIARUM, in NAT. HIST. Div., where also the principal species are mentioned. The height attained by the canes, their colour, the length of their joints, and many other particulars, vary with different species, with the character of the soil, and with the modem of culture adopted. The stems vary in height from eight feet up to twenty feet, and are divided by prominent annular joints Into short lengths. Long narrow leaves sprout from each joint; but as the canes approach maturity, all the leaves from the lower joints fall out The outer part of the cane is hard and brittle, but the inner consists of a soft pith, which contains the sweet juice ; this juice is elaborated separately in each joint, independently of those above and below lt. The canes are usually propagated by slips or cuttings, con sisting of the top of the cane, with two or three of the upper joints, the leaves being stripped off. These are planted either in holes dug by hand, or in trenches formed by a plough, from eight to twelve inches deep. Three feet between the rows, and two feet between the holes in the rows, are about the minimum distances ; but when the horse-hoe is used to keep the ground clear from weeds, the distances are usually increased to five feet and two and a half feet respectively. Two or more slips are laid longitudinally at the bottom of each hole, and covered with earth from the banks, to tho depth of one or two inches. In about a fortnight the sprouts appear a little, above the earth, and then a little more earth from the bank is put into the hole ; and AA the plants continue to grow the earth is occasionally filled in, by a little at is time, until, after four or five months, the holes are entirely filled up. From August to November is generally considered the best time for planting in the British West Indies ; and about March and April is perhaps the most generally approved time for cutting the canes, although that operation is sometimes performed through a great part of the year. The maturity of the cane is indicated by the skin be coming dry, smooth, and brittle ; by the cane becoming heavy ; the pith gray, approaching to brown ; and the juice sweet and glutinous. The canes which grow immediately from the planted slips are called plant-cans; but it is usual, in the West Indies, to raise several crops in successive years from the same roots ; the canes which sprout up from the old roots, or stoles, being called rattoons. The rattoons are not so vigorous as tho original plant-canes ; but they afford better sugar, and that with leas trouble in clarifying and concentrating the juice. Homo planters have, under favourable circumstances, raised rattoon crops for more than twenty years sneceasively, from the same stoles.
The canes should be cut as near the ground as possible, because the richest juice is fOund in the lower joints. One or two of the top joints of the cane are cut off, and the remainder is divided into pieces about a yard long, tied up in bundles, and carried immediately to the mill. The upper branches of the cane are used as food for cattle ; the remainder of the waste forms a valuable manure, for which purpose the trash or waste from the mill is admirably suited, though much of it is usually consumed as fuel.
Preparation of Raw Sugar.—The operation of cutting the canes is eo adjusted as to keep pace with the action of the mill by which the juice is to be pressed out ; so that the canes may be crushed or ground while quite fresh. In the East Indies mills of very rude and imperfect construction are used; some of them resembling mortars, formed of the lower part of the trunks of trees, in which the canes are crushed by the rolling motion of a pestle, moved by oxen yoked to a horizontal bar. The expressed juice rims off by a hole bored obliquely from the lower part of the mortar-like cavity, and is conducted by a spout to a vessel placed to receive it. In order to make such a mill effective, it is neces sary to cut the cane into very small pieces. Other mills are capable of being moved from place to place, so that they may accompany the menta of the cane-cutters. One of these consists of two vertical rollers of hard wood, having, near their upper ends, endless screws, or spiral ridges, so fitting into each other that both rollers may revolve when rotatory motion is applied to either. The axis of one of the rollers is prolonged vertically above the framing, and carries a beam to which oxen are yoked to turn the mill. This appears to be the prototype of the vertical mill long used in the West India colonies. Another, still simpler, consisting of two grooved rollers placed horizontally in contact with each', other, and turned by the power of men applied to levers at their ends, appears, in like manner, to be the rude original of the improved horizontal mills introduced of late years. The common vertical cane-mills of the West Indies consist of three rollers, usually of wood, with narrow strips of iron attached to their faces, so as to form, by the spaces left between them, straight grooves extending from end to end of the rollers. The moving-power is applied to the middle roller, and communicated from it to the others by eogged wheels. Of late steam-engines have been adopted with good effect in some of the sugar-works in the West Indies. In using the mill, a negro applies the canes in a regular layer or sheet to the interval between the first and second rollers, which seize and compress the canes violently as they pass between them. The ends of the canes are then turned, either by another negro on the opposite side to the feeder, or by a framework of wood called a dumb returner, so that they may pass back again between the second and third rollers. As these are placed nearer together than the first and second, they compress the males still more, so that on leaving them they are reduced to the form of dry splinters, which are called sane-trash. Channels are added to receive the liquor expressed from the canes, and to conduct it to the vessels in which it is to undergo the succeeding operations.