Rosewood History

Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, Tuesday, 7 February 1871, page 3

SUGAR IN WEST MORETON

To Mr. Pochee, the Ipswich photographer, belongs the distinguished honour of having been the first to establish a sugar plantation and factory in this district. His operations, during his first season, have it is true not been on an extensive scale; but he has accomplished quite sufficient to entitle him to be regarded as the pioneer of the industry. Others have grown the cane, and grown it succeessfully; but he is the first to enter on the more hazardous and expensive experi-ment of constructing the necessary appliances for converting the cane juice into sugar. 

Mr. Pochee’s plantation is situated about a mile and a half from the Walloon railway station, in a pine scrub. The total quantity of land is 160 acres, of which about 15 are clearcd-that is to say, the timber is felled; but the stumps all remain in the ground, which is also strewn over with pine logs which it is impossible to burn. The clearing being thus imperfect the plough cannot be used, and the whole labour of cultivation has to be performed by hand. The soil appears to be very rich and light, the surface undulating, and, judging from the appearance of the cane in the few stools left standing, there can be no doubt that the land is eminently well fitted for the production of this kind of crop. 

The quantity of cane grown last season, the crushing of which is just completed, was about three acres. Had the proprietor been able to cut the cane at the proper time, when the density was from 8½ to 9, the yield might have been, notwithstanding the imperfect cultivation, as much as a ton of sugar per acre; but, owing to delays in the preparations for manufacture, it was late in January when crushing began, and the density was then down to 7. It is still, however, not improbable that the total yield of sugar will be twoand-a-half tons, which, for a beginning, is not to be despised. The description of cane is Bourbon and ribbon mixed. 

The mill which has been used by Mr. Pochee this season is the same as was exhibited by him in Thorn’s buildings in connection with the Agricultural Society show in August last. The three rollers are of iron-bark, vertical, standing in a row, the top ends having rounded projecting cogs, cut obliquely out of the solid wood, so arranged that when the middle roller revolves, the two outside ones move with it, but in contrary directions, so that the cane can be fed in from both sides. The mill is kept going by three horses, each working singly for an hour at a time. The juice is carried under the horse track, by piping, rising again by its own gravity in the boiling-house, where it is discharged. The mill is roofed in. 

The boiling-house, which is a large wooden building, open on one side, stands at a distance of a few yards from the mill. Under the floor at one end is the furnace, the flue from which runs underground the whole length of the building, and at the other end is a tall brick chimney about 50 feet high. The whole of the underground work is of brick and stone, and there is also a brick and stone furnace above ground at the end nearest the mill. On this furnace stand the clarifers-iron vats-two in number, into which the juice is received by means of the pipe leading from the mill, and where it receives its dressing of lime, and is made to yield up the greater portion of its impurity. The middle portion of the building, extending from the clariflers to the underground furnace at the other end, is occupied by the “battery’,” which is built into the top of the furnace and the flue. The battery is a flat bottomed iron pan-say twenty feet long by five wide-divided into three compartments, and terminating, at the end nearest the furnace, in the “tache,” or boiler, whichl is fixed immediately over the fire. As the juice leaves the clarifers, it flows into the first “evaporator,” as each compartment of the flat portion of the battery is termed, and is ladled up from one evaporator to another, the heat increasing in each,until it finally reaches the tache itself in which it is raised to a temperature of about 230 degrees. After bubbling here for some time, and obtaining considerable consistency and a rich yellowish-brown colour, it is ladled off into a trough along which it runs into the granulator, where it is stirred by a spindle constructed something like the paddle-wheel of a steamer, with ledges on the floats. After being agitated and cooled for a time in the granulator, it is again ladled out, and poured into the coolers, which are large vessels, about eighteen inches deep, con-structed of thick pine boards, and capable of holding about 500lbs. of sugar each. In these coolers the liquor rapidly thickens, becoming, in fact, wet sugar. 

Here, the operation so far has stopped; for, although a small quantity of excellent marketable sugar-such as may be seen and tasted at our oflice-has been obtained by “draining,” it is not intended to adopt this plan, but to use the centrifugal. With the skilled assistance obtained at the railway workshops, Mr. Pochee has succeeded in constructing a centrifugal at very moderate cost, which is expected to be at work in a day or two, and turn out a superior class of sugar. His factory then will be complete. 

The manager is Mr. Earle, a gentleman who, in addition to a knowledge of the whole process of sugar production gained in the West Indies, has had five years’ experience also in this colony. He seems to be thoroughly well up in his work, and to take pleasure in explaining the secrets of his art to the curious. He assured us that, with the assistance of one man, he would be able, after the first start, to keep a plantation of twenty acres going. 

Planting is now proceeding rapidly, the intention being this next season to have the whole fifteen acres under crop. It is also determined to do away with the vertical-roller principle in the crushing mill, and adopt the horizontal instead, the capacity of the present mill not being equal to the requirements. About 500 gallons is as much as it can pass through in a day, whereas the battery is equal to disposing of more than 1200 gallons. It is reckoned that a gallon of juice makes a pound of sugar. 

The whole of the fifteen acres cleared are fenced in with close paling, the object being to keep out the wallabies, which are very destructive to the young plants. The expedient, however, has not answered perfectly, for the active little robbers still manage sometimes to get in and carry on their right long depredations. 

All the buildings and carpentery work on the farm have been constructed by Mr. Pochee with his own hands, and the workmanship throughout is excellent. He also intends to make the new crushing-mill himself. So great is his confidence in the ultimate success of the undertaking that, although his outlay hitherto has been very great, with little to show for it yet in the way of returns, he boldly declares his determination, if necessary, to spend his last shilling in carrying out the work. He is the sort of man for a new country. It is a pity that his example does not shake other people up a little.