May 1, 1864.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



ON THE STRAW PLAIT TEADE. 4L7 



season vary from 8s. to 12s. for the medium hands ; 12s. to 15s. is 

 obtained by those employed upon the best plain goods ; and best fancy 

 hands can obtain from 16s. to 20s. per week ; the?e earnings are subject 

 to variation with the fluctuations of the trade. 



Many of this class return home in July and August for a holiday, 

 coming to work again in September. Numbers come from considerable 

 distances, as far as 30 to 60 miles. The other and larger class of sewers 

 are those engaged upon " sale work," and as this is the commonest 

 description, their earnings are in proportion. The goods are in general 

 sold by them to the warehouses at the end of the week. Almost every 

 poor family is employed upon this kind of work, and their earnings vary 

 very considerably ; but, on the whole, more is obtained than by plaiting 

 families of the surrounding districts. As this class of the population ia 

 very numerous, they are subject more suddenly to the changes of trade, 

 their productions frequently being in excess of the demand. In good 

 seasons their earnings are excellent. The industry of the mass of the 

 population is great, as may be seen when it is considered that the " sale 

 work " amounts to nearly five millions of bonnets and hats within a 

 twelvemonth. So vast has the trade become, and so industrious are the 

 fingers that ply the needle, that articles of cheapness and utility are the 

 result of their industrial occupation, such as no other town, unaided by 

 machinery, in the kingdom can exhibit. 



The earnings of those employed upon sale work vary much. Chil- 

 dren earn 2s. to 3s. per week ; girls and women 5s. to 8s. per week. 

 Boys in some cases also sew, and some men in the winter season, when 

 other employment is scarce. 



The male part of the population engaged in the trade are boys and 

 lads, employed in bleaching, dyeing, and brushing plait, earning 5s. to 

 8s. per week ; men at the same earning 12s. to 15s., and the large and 

 important class of blockers or pressers earning 20s. to 30s. per week. 



The Luton productions of the superior descriptions are manufactured 

 in the work-rooms, and amount to from two to three millions of bonnets 

 and hats annually. 



Of late years much valuable material has been worked up at Luton, 

 either alone or with English straw. These materials consist of foreign 

 and St. Albans' wove trimmings, and that most important article from 

 Switzerland, hair braids or embroidered hair braids and trimmings, 

 commonly known as crinoline. Similar hats and bonnets are made up 

 at Dunstable ; and the two towns, now connected with each other by 

 railway, and at so short a distance, may be considered as one in the 

 superiority of their manufactures ; though " sale work " is produced at 

 Dunstable, in a very small degree. 



The " straw trade," in all its numerous ramifications, is most exten- 

 sive, and when the bonnets and hats now made in London from Bedford- 

 shire and other straw plait are added, the annual returns will not fall 

 short of one and a quarter millions sterling. 



During the past 15 years a large shipping trade has been carried on 



VOL. IV. R R 



