were the two Haydons, father and son, from near Charlottetown, the father referred to as a ’millwright’ in Selkirk’s journal, and he also recorded a few additional comments from James Williams, who had just arrived from Scotland on one of Selkirk’s three ships and who was shortly to be appointed his agent on the island, as well as from ’Laird', presumably ’Jo Laird’ the Loyalist settler, whom Selkirk frequently cites as a source of the information he recorded on other topics. As well, Selkirk also consulted Benjamin Chappell about the building of his mill.575

Haydon told Selkirk that to build a sawmill, including a ’framed house’ (presumably the mill- house enclosing the mill, and not a separate building) would cost £150, and a second saw on the same wheel would cost another £60; the ironworks for the mill (including presumably the saws) would be an additional 1325.576 Building the mill dam, ”framed of large hemlock logs, between which earth is filled in”, would take two axemen and eight labourers two months and might cost another £100577 Selkirk was also told that the mill was always set close to the dam, or actually formed part of the dam, on account of the soil being so porous that ”a mill load cannot be made without great difficulty”. This also enabled the mill to work all winter, and the same dam could be made to serve both a grist mill and a sawmill.

Selkirk then went on to consider the costs of operating such a mill, as well as its productivity: Haydon (the father) considered that a sawmill with a single saw operated by one man could cut at least ”1,000 feet per day”, and 2,000 feet if there were two saws (though James Williams thought 2,000 feet per day might be cut by working one saw both night and day). To get the logs needed for the mill there were two options: when local people brought in logs for cutting they were allowed ’half produce’, the mill getting half of each log as payment for the cutting — and presumably if the procurer did not have a use for the wood they

575 Selkirk does not mention meeting Chappell in his journal,

though Chappell mentions a meeting with “Silkirk & Haydon about a Saw Mill" (Chappell 1775-1818, 17 August 1803, not extracted).

575 I note that Anon. (1808) gives a similar cost of £200 for building a sawmill, and that Palmer (1816) also estimated the cost

of the ‘cheapest [sawjmill' that could be erected on the Ox River in Lot 13 as ‘about £200'.

577 The dam's dimensions are given as 100 yards long, 13 feet high, 30 feet [wide] at the fan (presumably the base), and 8 or 10 (feet) at the top.

86

would be paid for the whole log.S78 On this basis,

and with the price of boards being £3 per 1,000 feet, Selkirk reckoned that the mill could ”turn out He. bring in an income of] about £450 [per year] the single, or £900 the double saw”, which can be verified by simple calculations”. However, this method would not guarantee a sufficient supply of logs, and so it would also be necessary to directly employ axemen to procure logs (there was a difference of opinion among his informants on the number, which ranged between two and six men), these men being paid for each log that they brought in, one shilling if it came from within a quarter mile of a water course leading to the mill, or two shillings if it came from within two miles of a water course (more geographically specific, Williams suggested one shilling per log 'on Pinette’ — presumably meaning from within the Pinette River system). Haydon ’Junr.’ reckoned that ”4 logs at average furnish 1,000 feet” He 250 feet

per log], while Williams reckoned 200 feet per 580

log. Selkirk must have had in mind a lumber export business to the British Isles since he recorded that Williams estimated the 'total

expenses for exportation’ at 20 shillings per 1,000 feet ’on board’ (presumably all of the costs up to the point where the lumber was loaded onto a ship for export), but he added that he could not depend on more than 40 or 50 shillings per 1000 board feet as the ’price for exportation’ (this would seem to be the estimated sale price in Great Britain).

It was presumably on the basis of estimates such as these that Selkirk gave the 'go ahead’ shortly after for the construction of at least one sawmill on the Pinette River system, though by 1808 James Williams, as Selkirk’s agent, had proceeded, without his permission to lease the ’mills’ and the timber rights on Selkirk’s townships to local timber entrepreneurs. 58‘

573

In the 18603 Joseph Morris (1864-1868), who operated a sawmill at North Granville, was paying local farmers for logs that they brought to his mill.

5’9 I think that this estimate of ‘about £450' was arrived at as follows: taking 313 working days in the year (i.e. omitting Sundays) and multiplying by 1000 feet per day gives 313,000 board feet produced per year, which at £3 per 1000 board feet would equal £939, and if this was split with the supplier of the logs, it would give £469, which is reasonably close to his ‘about £450’.

58° It is not specified whether this is for deals, planks or boards —

see footnote 554. 5‘“ Selkirk 1809. In this ietter Selkirk refers to his “mills on Pinette Rivei” (note the plural) being leased to ”Spraggan May 8. Co. Lumber merchants” — presumably these would have been sawmills, since William Spraggan is identified by Bumsted (1988) (p. 408) as 'an island timber merchant‘.