Then Lawson had great trouble with the grist mill on Mill Creek : ... in summer 17721 began to clear the river and build a dame for a grist mill and in summer 17731 finished her and having got a pair of miln- stones from three rivers which cost me ??27 and in summer 1775 the mill and dame was all burnt and the milnstones all brock to peaces ... in summer 17761 built the mill a second time and the same day she was finished she was burnt both dame and mill. By this burning I lost a pair of milnstones that cost me ??10 and ??5 for a vessel to bring them to tracadie besides the expense from tracadie to the mill ... same fall I built the dame and in summer 1777 I built the mill a third time and paid out above ??10 to clear all the spruce and pine near the mill in case of such accidentally happening a forth time as it was the woods burning that was blamed for the mill burning ... This burning the woods was a most dangerous practice; in clearing the land, after trees were cut and used for building houses, barns, ships, the trimmings and scrub were set on fire; sometimes the fire was set without felling the trees first; in both cases runaway fires often ensued, with disastrous results. The 1790 map of Farm shows an area of "Burnt Woods" along with "Cleared land and Plough" and "Shrubbery". In 1775 there was a plague of mice, similar to those plagues occurring during the Acadian settlement period; they ate... upwards of 100 bushels of different grain... and would have eaten the whole year's harvest... had I not atended the crop night and day and killed some thousands ... . And again, also from David Lawson 's Misfortunes, ... the same summer I had 20 bushels of barley all Eat by the grubs besides a quantity of peas and oats which was more than half Eate. Hired help was expensive too: I had not on laboring man for seven years but cost me half a dollar per day accept a sojer now and then which I payed a shilling per day. Was this discrimination against soldiers? by dollar he probably meant a pound, so half a dollar would have been ten shillings. In spite of all these misfortunes, David Lawson and the inden?? tured servants managed to achieve quite a lot. The first two years were spent in clearing over 100 acres of land and building a large house (70 x 20 feet) with a barn and byres. Lawson managed to build up breeding herds of cattle, sheep and hogs. Then he experimented with flax growing, with some success, and sent one foot thick samples of soil home for Sir James to have analysed. The farm produced enough to support the colonists, with a surplus. At this point, when the servants could be fed from the farm, and could get to work creating the pro?? jected flax plantation, their 4-year indentures ran out, and they scattered to take up their leasehold land, demanding their promised animals, which of course weakened Lawson's breeding herds; in 1774 he gave the settlers 45 head of cattle as well as 6 horses. 18