292 NATURAL HISTORY 



oils will come very cheap. A pound of common grease 

 may be procured for four pence ; and about six pounds 

 of grease will dip a pound of rushes; and one pound of 

 rushes may be bought for one shilling : so that a pound 

 of rushes, medicated and ready for use, will cost three 

 shillings. If men that keep bees will mix a little wax 

 with the grease, it will give it a consistency, and render 

 it more cleanly, and make the rushes burn longer: mut- 

 ton suet would have the same effect. 



A good rush, which measured in length two feet four 

 inches and a half, being minuted, burned only three 

 minutes short of an hour: and a rush still of greater 

 length has been known to burn one hour and a quarter. 



These rushes give a good clear light. Watch-lights 

 (coated with tallow), it is true, shed a dismal one, 

 " darkness visible;" but then the wick of those has two 

 ribs of the rind, or peel, to support the pith, while the 

 wick of the dipped rush has but one. The two ribs are 

 intended to impede the progress of the flame and make 

 the candle last. 



In a pound of dry rushes, avoirdupois, which I caused 

 to be weighed and numbered, we found upwards of one 

 thousand six hundred individuals. Now, suppose each 

 of these burns, one with another, only half an hour, 

 then a poor man will purchase eight hundred hours of 

 light, a time exceeding thirty-three entire days, for three 

 shillings. According to this account each rush, before 

 dipping, costs one-thirty-third of a farthing, and one- 

 eleventh afterwards. Thus a poor family will enjoy 

 five hours and a half of comfortable light for a farthing. 

 An experienced old housekeeper assures me that one 

 pound and a half of rushes completely supplies his 

 family the year round ; since working people burn no 

 candle in the long days, because they rise and go to bed 

 by daylight. 



Little farmers use rushes much in the short days, 

 both morning and evening, in the dairy and kitchen ; 

 but the very poor, who are always the worst economists, 



