VIII.] ENGLISH STRAW PLAT. 135 



the expense of cutting and bleaching, I shall trouble 

 you with a few words relating to it. If there were 

 a field of Ray-grass, or of Crested Dog's-tail, or any 

 other good sort, and nothing else growing with it, 

 the expense of cutting would be very little indeed, 

 seeing that the scythe or reap-hook would do the 

 business at a great rate. Doubtless there will be such 

 fields; but even if the grass have to be cut by the 

 handful, my opinion is, that the expense of cutting 

 and bleaching would not exceed fourpence for straw 

 enough to make a large bonnet. I should be willing 

 to contract to supply straw, at this rate, for half a 

 million of bonnets. The scalding must constitute a 

 considerable part of the expense ; because there must 

 be fresh water for every parcel of grass that you put 

 in the tub. When water has scalded one parcel of 

 cold grass, it will not scald another parcel. Besides, 

 the scalding draws out the sweet mutter of the grass, 

 and makes the water the colour of, that horrible stuff 

 called London porter. It would be very good, by-the- 

 by, to give to pigs. Many people give hay-tea to pigs 

 and calves ; and this is grass-tea. To scald a large 

 quantity, therefore would require means^not usually 

 at hand, and the scalding is an essential part of the 

 business. Perhaps, in a large and convenient farm- 

 house, with a good brewing copper, good -fuel and 

 water handy, four or five women might scald a wagon 

 load in a day; and a wagon would, I think, carry 

 straw enough (in the rough) to furnish the means of 

 making a> thousand bonnets. However, the scalding 

 'might take place in the field it&tf, by means of a 

 portable boiler, especially if water were at hand ; and 

 perhaps it would be better to carry the water to the 

 field than to carry the grass to the farm-house, for 

 there must be ground to lay it out upon the moment 

 it has been scalded, and no ground can be so proper as 

 the newly -mowed ground where the grass has stood. 

 The space, too, must be large, for any considerable 

 quantity of grass. As to all these things, however, the 

 best and cheapest methods will soon be discovered 

 when people set about the work with a view to profit. 



