St. Nicholas/Volume 40/Number 5/Nature and Science/Sugar
How the trade-winds help to make our sugar
Sugar is the principal product of the little island of Barbados, and, to grind it, the people have 
A windmill used in grinding sugar-cane. built many big windmills, closely resembling those used in Holland. Barbados is near the north coast of South America, and far to the east of all the other islands of the West Indies, where the strong trade-winds sweep in from the Atlantic Ocean, and for many months blow constantly in one direction. The people use these steady winds, and, with many windmills, have harnessed them to do the work of the island. The mill shown in our picture turns slowly day after day, grinding the sap from the great loads of cane that are drawn in from the fields by the faithful oxen. We owe much to the trade-winds, for they blew Columbus surely and safely on his course across the Atlantic, till he landed on a little island in the West Indies, and discovered the new world. Also the same useful trade-winds blew the big merchant ships across the ocean, before the days of steamships, and made possible the commerce of the world.