122 ENGLISH STRAW PLAT. [No. 



hundred and sixty plants. So that to transplant an 

 acre, you must sow about five rods of ground. The 

 plants should be kept very clean ; and, by the last 

 week in June, or first in July, you put them out. 

 I have put them out (in England) at all times be- 

 tween 7th of June and middle of August. The first 

 is certainly earlier than I like; and the very finest I 

 ever grew in England, and the finest I ever saw for 

 a large piece, were transplanted on the 14th of July. 

 But one year with another, the last week in June is 

 the best time. For size of plants, manner of trans- 

 planting, intercultivation, preparing the land, and the 

 rest, see " Yearns Residence in America" 



No. VIII. 



On the converting of English Grass, and Grain 

 Plants cut green, into Straw, for the purpose of 

 making Plat for Hats and Bonnets. 



KENSINGTON, MAY 30, 1823. 



208. THE foregoing Numbers have treated, chiefly f 

 of the management of the affairs of a labourer's family, 

 and more particularly of the mode of disposing of the 

 money earned by the labour of the family. The 

 present Number will point out what I hope may be- 

 come an advantageous kind of labour. All along I 

 have proceeded upon the supposition, that the wife 

 and children of the labourer be, as constantly as pos- 

 sible, employed in work of some sort or other. The 

 cutting, the bleaching, the sorting, and the platting - 

 of straw, seem to be, of all employments, the best suit- 

 ed to the wives and children of country labourers ; 

 and the discovery which I have made, as to the 

 means of obtaining the necessary materials, will en- 

 able them to enter at once upon that employment. 



209. Before I proceed to give my directions rela- 

 tive to the performance of this sort of labour, I shall 

 give a sort of history of the discovery to which I have 

 just alluded. 



