A Primitive Sugar-Cane MillAuthor(s): Ismael VelezSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 73, No. 5 (Nov., 1951), p. 324Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20443 .

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SCIENCE ON THE MARCH A PRIMITIVE SUGAR-CANE MILL

D URING a recent visit to the island of Dominica, B.W.I., I observed a very primi- tive sugar-cane mill that deserves more

than passing mention. Douglas Taylor, in The Caribs of Dominica (Anthropological Paper #3. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution [1938]), devotes only a short paragraph to its de- scription and makes no further comment, nor does he refer to previous reports. This short note is in- tended to call attention to the implications of the existence of such a mill and its relationship to the history of fermented beverages and of sugar-cane culture in the West Indies.

Sugar cane is planted occasionally on the island of Dominica, but is not used in the making of sugar. Near the town of Rosseau, the capital, juice is ex- tracted by machinery, using very wasteful methods. Judging by the condition of the bagasse when it is thrown away, a large percentage of the sugar re- mains in it. The juice is fermented and used for drinks. Dominica is famous for its "limeade" punch.

The Carib Indians, in the Carib reserve in the eastern part of the island--the only Carib reserva- tion in existence also cultivate sugar cane and chew the stalks, or extract the juice. Each family presses its own cane in a very simple device (Fig. 1).

Just outside the house a thick post is stuck in the ground. A groove is beveled out on one side of the post by means of a 450 cut, meeting a horizontal cut about two thirds of the way across the post. A hole is pierced through the remaining third, and through the hole a thick stick is thrust. This stick is the lever that extracts the juice by pressing against the cane, which rests on a horizontal cut (Fig. 1). The pressed juice trickles down the sides of the groove to a container made from a gourd or a calabash and located in another groove somewhat lower in the post. The juice, called vesou by the Caribs, is used as it is to sweeten coffee or cocoa, or it is fermented and later used as a drink.

When I observed this, I took for granted that, primitive as this seemed, no credit could be given to

the Caribs, since I assumed that the "mill" must have come from the East with the sugar cane. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says that "In India at the present day there are thousands of small mills worked by hand, through which the peasant culti- vators pass canes two or three at a time, squeezing them a little, extracting out one fourth of their weight in juice." Later, I found that the mill ante- dated the introduction of sugar cane in the West Indies. It was used for the grinding or crushing of cassava or other plant materials from which juice for drinks was extracted.

Recently it was reported that such a primitive

FIG. 1. Author's sketch of primitive sugar-cane mill, B.W.I.

sugar-cane press is used in some parts of Cuba. Taylor reported (loc. cit.) that it is also common in Guiana. This tends to prove its universality in the pre-Colombian population. At any rate, it ap- pears to be the most primitive sugar-cane mill known.

ISMAEL VELEZ Polytechnic Institute of Puerto Rico San German

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324 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

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