170 
THE EAT. 
hundred rats had a bushel of this corn to eat, instead of 
three half pints, they would waste over two gallons and 
a half ; or, to make it plainer, they would, in eight days, get 
rid of a quarter, or eight bushels, out of which they would 
waste over two bushels and five gallons. Now, if this be the 
waste of this superior and expensive grain, pray what must 
be the waste among poor and inferior corn ? 
The usual custom of rats is to average six months' resi- 
dence out of the twelve in the barns, ricks, granaries, &c. ; 
say from Michaelmas to Lady-day. During the other six 
months they mostly resort to the fields, hedges, ditches, 
woods, and the water-side, and feed upon crops, eggs, birds, 
and fish of all kinds that come within their reach, or indeed 
anything else that chance may throw in their way. How- 
ever, we will say nothing about what they consume during 
the summer months ; but calculate, to a certain extent, the 
losses they occasion in the farms and farmsteads during the 
winter months. 
I shall now state the amount of losses according to the 
wine-glass standard, and the number of the rats you may 
calculate you have upon your respective farms. A party of 
farmers with whom I was lately in conversation, gave 
difierent estimates oi the number of these vermin on their 
respective farms. One estimated them at 250; consequently 
his losses amounted to half a bushel per day, or eleven 
quarters three bushels and a peck in tlie half-year. 
Another gentleman estimated his rats at 500 ; conse- 
quently his losses amounted to a bushel per day, or twenty- 
two quarters six bushels and a half in the six months. The 
chairman of the meeting estimated his rats at 750 ; conse- 
quently his losses amounted to one bushel and a half per 
day, or thirty-four quarters one bushel and three pecks in 
the half-3^ear. Three of the gentlemen estimated their rats 
at 1000 each, and, as a matter of course, their losses would be 
proportionately greater ; that is to say, a thousand rats, 
eating only a wine-glass of corn per day each, and allowing 
in the same time only twenty-four glasses for waste among 
a thousand feeding, they will, in six months, or 182 days 
and a half, consume five bushels over nine loads of British 
corn. 
Let us next calculate the loss in the shape of bread. I 
