Low-Tech Mill

Small cane mills like those beyond the walk were not part of the Cruger-dePeyster plantation, but they illustrate the difference between ordinary agriculture and large-scale sugar production. Settlers used these animal-powered crushers to extract cane juice for sorghum syrup, mostly for local consumption. By contrast, Cruger-dePeyster used large steam-driven rollers to crush cane. Long after the sugar factory's costly and temperamental machinery had ceased operating, simple mills continued grinding across the American South.

Florida · United States