168 
THE EAT. 
But to make the matter easier to cast up, I will give the 
figures : — 
In the first place, put down the two old ones . . 2 
Lady-day, 1856 
Midsummer-day, 1856 . . . . . . . . 8 
Michaelmas-day, 1856. — The first litter are six 
months' old .. .. .. .. .. 40 
Christmas-day, 1856 . . . . . . . . . . 72 
Lady-day, 1857 232 
Midsummer-day, 1857 520 
Michaelmas-day, 1857 .. .. .. 1,448 
Christmas-day, 1857 3,528 
Lady-day, 1858 9,320 
Midsummer-day, 1858 23,432 
Michaelmas-day, 1858 60,712 
Christmas-day, 1858 154,440 
Lady-day, 1859 397,288 
651,050 
Wonderful as this calculation may appear, yet what will 
be more wonderful still is, that presently I shall be able to 
prove that they would eat and waste more food than 
would suffice to feed over 65,000 human beings. Or, to 
render the thing easier of comprehension, let ns suppose 
them to have but one litter more — making fourteen litterings 
in three years and three months — and then we shall find the 
numbers to be 1,015,048, which would eat and destroy more 
grain than would sup})ly the whole of the British army with 
one pound nine ounces of bread each, day by day, even 
though they numbered 101,504 men. 
CHAPTER IIL 
DEVASTATING POWDERS OF RATS, AND THEIR ENORMOUS 
CONSUMPTION OF GRAIN. 
At a late meeting of farmers, among whom the devastating 
qualities of the rat formed the subject of discussion, it w^as 
generally agreed, in reply to the author's questions, that, 
wdth eating andwasting, they would destroy half a pint of grain 
