The first machines employed to squeeze the canes, were mills similar to
those which serve to crush apples in some cider districts, or somewhat
like tan-mills. In the centre of a circular area, of about 7 or 8 feet
in diameter, a vertical heavy wheel was made to revolve on its edge, by
attaching a horse to a cross beam projecting horizontally from it, and
making it move in a circular path. The cane pieces were strewed on the
somewhat concave bed in the path of the wheel, and the juice expressed
flowed away through a channel or gutter in the lowest part. This machine
was tedious and unproductive. It was replaced by the vertical
cylinder-mill of Gonzales de Velosa; which has continued till modern
times, with little variation of external form, but is now generally
superseded by the sugar-mill with horizontal cylinders.