VIII.] ENGLISH STRAW PLAT. 131 



which and that of Italy or Connecticut was well 

 known to be very great. 



G. My experiments have, I presume, completely 

 removed this doubt. I think that the straw produced 

 by me to the Society, and also some of the pieces ot 

 plat, are of a colour which no straw or plat can sur- 

 pass. All that remains, therefore, is for me to give 

 an account of the manner in which I cut and bleached 

 the grass which I have submitted to the Society in 

 the state of straw. 



H. First, as to the season of the year, all the 

 straw, except that of one sort of couch-grass, and the 

 long coppice-grass, which two were got in Sussex, 

 were got from grass cut in Hertfordshire on the 21st of 

 June. A grass head-land, in a wheat-field, had been 

 mowed during the forepart of the day, and in the af- 

 ternoon I went and took a handful here and a handful 

 there out of the swaths. When I had collected as 

 much as I could well carry, I took it to my friend's 

 house, and proceeded to prepare it for bleaching, ac- 

 cording to the information sent me from America by 

 my son; that is to say, I put my grass into a shallow 

 tub, put boiling water upon it until it was covered by 

 the water, let it remain in that state for ten minutes, 

 then took it out, and laid it very thinly on a closely- 

 mowed lawn in a garden. But I should observe, 

 that, before I put the grass into the tub, I tied it up 

 in small bundles, or sheaves, each bundle being about 

 six inches through at the butt-end. This was neces- 

 sary, in order to be able to take the grass, at the end 

 of ten minutes, out of the water, without throwing 

 it into a confused mixture as to tops and tails. Being 

 tied up in little bundles, I could easily, with a prong, 

 take it out of the hot water. The bundles were put 

 into a large wicker basket, carried to the lawn in the 

 garden, and there taken out, one by one, and laid in 

 swaths as before-mentioned. 



I. It was laid very thinly; almost might I say, that 

 no stalk of grass covered another. The swaths were 

 turned once a day. The bleaching was completed 



