Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/197

 were made of the same metals as the candlestick. There were tin and brass lamps and tin lanterns. In the homes of the poorest class, it is quite probable that the pine knot served an important part in illumination, the turpentine, congealed in the fibre of the wood, causing it to burn with a fierce glare until consumed. The steel mill was in frequent use as a means of striking a light.

The fuel of the dwelling-house was found in the surrounding forests, which furnished a great variety of wood. The hickory and the oak were abundant everywhere. The clearing of new grounds, this forming a part of the annual plantation work, supplied a great quantity of trunks and limbs of trees of all sizes. The large fireplaces of the residences in winter were filled with the heavy sticks, which, as the flames converted them into ashes, were, with a generous hand, replenished by others. There could be no waste or extravagance in this use of wood, the surface of the country being covered with forests which the owners were anxious to destroy. Warmth was one element of comfort the colonial householder could secure in the coldest spells of the winter without expense and with little inconvenience. The great wood fires, which cast such a cheerful glow about the different apartments of his home, must have done much to promote the contentment of all who entered into his family circle. In the mother country, throughout the seventeenth century, the forests steadily diminished, and wood for household use, in consequence, became dearer in value; the difference in Virginia in this particular must have impressed all emigrants from England to the Colony, where firewood was the cheapest of