Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/502

 of this mill were calculated at four thousand pounds of tobacco.

In 1671, we discover the first indication of the existence of flour-mills in the Colony, from the legal provision of that year that the toll for grinding wheat should be one-eighth instead of one-sixth of the amount of grain brought to the mill, one-sixth, as has already been pointed out, being the proportion allowed in the case of maize. Towards the end of the century there were a number of flour mills in Virginia. Fitzhugh mentions incidentally in his correspondence in 1686 that there was a mill not far from his house which ground both wheat and maize, and it was here that he obtained his regular supply of meal and flour. Colonel Byrd was the owner of two grist-mills managed by men whom he had obtained from England. In 1685, he informs an English correspondent that he expected in the course of another year to forward to England a sample of flour manufactured on his plantation, his bolting-mill at this time not being finished. Much of the wheat shipped to the West Indies was first converted into flour.