oppeth a pitchy kind of
substance where it stands."

That pitchy kind of substance was tar, which was one of the most
valuable trade products of the colonists. So much tar was made by
burning the pines on the banks of the Connecticut, that as early as 1650
the towns had to prohibit the using of candle-wood for tar-making if
gathered within six miles of the Connecticut River, though it could be
gathered by families for illumination and fuel.

Rev. Mr. Higginson, writing in 1633, said of these pine-knots:--

"They are such candles as the Indians commonly use, having no
other, and they are nothing else but the wood of the pine tree,
cloven in two little slices, something thin, which are so full of
the moysture of turpentine and pitch that they burne as cleere as a
torch."

To avoid having smoke in the room, and on account of the pitchy
droppings, the candle-wood was usually burned in a corner of the
fireplace, on a flat stone. The knots were sometimes called
pine-torches. One old Massachusetts minister boasted at the end of his
life that every sermon of the hundreds he had written, had been copied
by the light of these torches. Rev. Mr. Newman, of Rehoboth, is said to
have compiled his vast concordance of the Bible wholly by the dancing
light of this candle-wood. Lighting was an important item of expense in
any household of so small an income as that of a Puritan minister; and
the single candle was often frugally extinguished during the long family
prayers each evening. Every family laid in a good supply of this light
wood for winter use, and it was said that a prudent New England farmer
would as soon start the winter without hay in his barn as without
candle-wood in his woodshed.

Mr. Higginson wrote in 1630: "Though New England has no tallow to make
candles of, yet by abundance of fish thereof it can afford oil for
lamps." This oil was apparently wholly neglected, though there were few,
or no domestic animals to furnish tallow; but when cattle increased,
every ounce of tallow was saved as a precious and useful treasure; and
as they became plentiful it was one of the household riches of New
England, which was of value to our own day. When Governor Winthrop
arrived in Massachusetts, he promptly wrote over to his wife to bring
candles with her from England when she came. And in 1634 he sent over
for a large quantity of wicks and tallow. Candles cost fourpence apiece,
which made them costl