364 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



From the United States Gazette. 



On the Manufacture of Straw and Grass Bonnets. 



No. VIII. 



The followingr notes on the Manufacture of 



Leghorn hats, are from the delightful letters of 



Cbateavieux, of Geneva, (letter 6th,) on the 



Agriculture of Italy, written in the years 1812 , ■ , 



and '13* Speaking of the romantic Vale of from his remarks, althougl 



•^ " not apply to our situation ; but they could not 



well be omitted. 



prive them of the means of gaining an honora-i 

 ble support, and of enriching the nation, by 

 their labor ! 



The following extract from a late English 

 paper, shows what has been done in conse- 

 quence of Cobbelt's publications on the Leg- 

 horn hat business. The people of the United 

 States will be able to collect some useful hints 

 a few of them do 



Arno, he says, 



" The road on each side was bordered with 

 village houses, not more than a hundred paces 

 tfrom each other ; they are built of brick, and 

 in a justness of proportion, and with an ele- 

 gance of form unknown in our country. Be- 

 fore these houses we saw groups of peasant fe- 

 males dressed in while linen, silk corsets, and 

 straw hats ornamented with flowers, and placed 

 on one side of the head. They are constantly 

 employed in braiding fine straw plats the trea- 

 sure of this valley, and with which the straw 

 hats of Florence are manufactured. 



" This manufacture has become a source of 

 prosperity to the valley of Arno ; it brings an 

 annual return of three millions (of francs) 

 which ate divided among the females of the 

 country, for the men have no concern in this 

 branch of industry. Every young woman, for 

 a few pence, purchases the straw she iias occa- 

 sion for ; she exerts her talent to braid it as 

 fine as possible, and sells for her own profit, 

 the hats she has made ; the money which she 

 thus earns, at length, forming her dower. 



The fttther of the faoiily, however, claims of 

 the females of his house some of the labor 

 on his farm ; this is done by the women from 

 the mountains, who are paid by the younger 

 women in the plain, out of the profit on the 

 hats, for doing the work for them. They earn 

 from thirty to forty sous per day in plating 

 straw, while they can hire a poor woman from 

 the Appennines, for eight or ten ; by which 

 means they also preserve their hands from be- 

 ing hardened by rustic labor, which would les- 

 sen the flexibility of their fingers, so necessary 

 in a work of such fine texture. 



" Such are the female peasants of the Vale of 

 Arno, whose beauty and graces have been so 

 much celebrated by travellers, whose language 

 Xlfieri went to study, and who seem born to 

 (embellish the arts, and serve them as models. — 

 They are the shepherdesses of Arcadia, but it 

 is because they are not peasants, resembling 

 them only in their health and freedom of care, 

 and knowing nothing of their pains, their 

 scorching weather, and their fatigues. 1 have 

 been assured that a crop of two acres, will sup- 

 ply stra-j!) sufficient for the whole manufacture 

 of hats in Tuscany. It is the straw of beard- 

 less wheat, cut before it is quite ripe, and 

 which the sterility of the soil renders wliite. — 

 The soil is chosen in the calcareous hills; it is 

 never manured, and the seed is sown very tldck. 

 These houses being so near each other, it is 

 evident (he land annexed to them must be small, 

 and that properly in these va^lies must be very 

 much divided; the extent of these domains be- 

 ing from three to ten acres." ps. 73, 74. 



It appears from these extracts that the girls 

 of Tuscany, carry on the braiding of straw, at 

 lioine, as those of New England did when the 

 business flourished. How shameful it is to dfe- 



, , ' specimens 



I have now nume- ^ , . • ^^-i 

 and Ills mala 



1 see, from the common Bonnet grass; two fcf 

 from the crested dog's tail, and one from the Wj 

 maiden's hair grass. None of them are ex- 

 quisitely fine ; but number seven is most beaU' 

 tiful. I have compared it with a piece of »1 

 Leghorn, which is nearly of the same fineness; 

 and in every respect the Norfolk production is 

 the best. These specimens contain six instan- 

 ces of joining or knitting together ; and the do- 

 ing of this has, it seems, been discovered by 

 the lady who made the plat. Better judges 

 than 1 am, pronounce this knitting to be perfect- 

 ly well done. It is with great difficulty that the 

 eye can trace the joining ; and, therefore, we 

 need be in no apprehension as to an incapacity 

 to perform this part of the work. 



A gentleman from Suffolk has sent me soma.i 



of plat made by his daughtei;:| 



ervant. These are very good^j 



From Cobbett's Register. 

 The farther I inquire and observe, the more 

 complete is my conviction, that the Italians sel- 

 dom or never make use of the straw of grass; 

 and I am of opinion that we ourselves shall ri- 

 val and beat these Italians with their own means ; 

 namely, the stra-w of grain 



rous specimens of Italian plat before me ; some|^^^j ,_j^ specimens of grass are very good also, 

 very coarse, and some very fine, though by no ^^ difficulty which he finds in getting the, 



platters to work upon the new plat will, 1 im- 

 agine, very soon disappear. People are aU 

 ways unwilling to consider that which they, 

 have Leen accustomed to do, as being oflessval 



' 'translated by Dr. iligby, LondoD 1819. 



means so fine as the plat of Miss Woodhouse. 

 Very fine, however, and I am convinced that 

 even this fine is made out of the straw of grain, 

 though to obtain straw sufliciently fii.e tor the 

 purpose: great pains must have bfeen tak -r: 



The way to obtain the straw was to sow vvlieat 

 or rye at the rate of about fifteen busSifcl;; to 

 the acre. Miss Woodhouse chose to m.ike use 

 of grass in order to surpass the Italian- )u the 

 fineness of the work, and she has snrpassL.i i!'^m; 

 but the straw of grain would be gott'.s inuch 

 easier than that of grass, for a prodigioui quan- 

 tity would stand upon an acre of land ; it would 

 be all of one kind, and would be free from 

 weeds, and from all sorts of rubbish. 



Probably enough straw to make five thousand 

 bonnets might be grown upon an acre of land. !t 

 should be cut just when the milk is coming into 

 the grain of the head ears of the field. In most 

 field", especially in the woods and countries, 

 you will find places under big trees and along 

 the furrows where the straw is very small, and 

 where the ears arc scarcely an inch long, and 

 have no grain, or only a single grain, in each 

 of them, and that an imperfect one. In the 

 " Cottage £coJio>/iw," I mentioned the different 

 sorts of wheat and pointed out those whicii I 

 thought best for this purpose ; but I am satisfi- 

 ed that any sort will do. 



The grass of various sorts ma}', neverilieless, 

 be used ; and I can see no reason why the great 

 variety of sizes and of colors, afforded by the 

 grass should not prove advantageous, rather than 

 otherwise. Certain it is that we have all the 

 materials here ; and certain it is also that//iat>e 

 at this moment platters at work upon English rye 

 strata xeho are producing -xork equal to any that I 

 can find that has come from Leghorn. This is 

 coming to the point ; and the point w'.Il have 

 been come to in a very short time ; for it will 

 not lake more than a fortnight to turn this plat 

 into bonnets. I prefer beginning upon the 

 grain straw, because it is the very same mate- 

 rial that the Florentines make use of. Several 

 sorts of grass will make much finer and much 

 more beautiful plat ; but it will not be the same 

 as that which comes from Leghorn. It will be 

 better, but not the same ; and therefore I begin 

 with the straw of grain, and which does, in- 

 deed make very beautiful plat. 



The eight pieces of plat sent me by VV. B. 

 from Norfolk, exhibit a most admirable speci- 

 Wa of attention, industry, arid^kill. Five are. 



ue and less importance than that which they have 

 not been accustomed to do. But a s!\ort fim« 

 I gets the better of this sort oi feeling, and such 

 will be the result in the present instance. I, \ 

 look upon the discovery as of the greatest impor-. 

 tance, us leading to the habit of domestic manufac- 

 ture ; and by domestic, I mean the family where 

 the article is used. At present, the persons who | 

 plat straw, live in particular districts, and follow i 

 the platting as a sort of trade. This to a cer- 

 tain extent, and for exportation, perhaps may 

 be desirable still ; but what I want to see is> 

 this, the hats and bonnets made in peoples' 

 houses after just the same manner as shirts, 

 cravats, and such things are made. Before, 

 when we had no idea that we had the material 

 to make them of, or where to get straw to 

 split, it was necessary to go to the farmer and 

 make a purchase ; when this was the case the 

 hat and bonnet makers naturally congregated 

 tog(!lher, and became the under workers of the 

 master manufacturers or dealers ; so that the 

 thing had to pass three or four hands before it 

 reached the wearer. Now let it be borne ia 

 mind, that all middle men are mischievous, if 

 they can possibly be done without. The mise- 

 rable creatures in Ireland, owe otie half of 

 their calamities to middle men. The middle 

 men take away that which ought to remune- 

 rate productive labor. Suppose a gentleman 

 with a large family, living in some village. His 

 family expend ten pounds a year in straw hats 

 and bonnets. They get them from the neigh- 

 boring town. The bonnet man in this town 

 has received them from a bigger bonnet man 

 in London. He (for we »vill suppose (hem to 

 be En"-lish produce) has had them built, after 

 having bought the plat of a plat merchant, who 

 had first bought it of the platters in the plat- 

 ting district. Here, then, are three persons be- 

 tween the platter and the wearer. These 

 three persons must each of them have a greater 

 profit than the platter. Now, is not this a ve- 

 ry absurd way of going on? You have the ma- 

 terials in every field and every hedge. It costs 

 little more trouble to get them than it does to 

 pick a nosegay. You get enough, in five min- 

 utes from the side of a footpath under any 

 hedge in the kingdom. Is it notietter than to 



