Having thus given you an account of the time and manner of cutting the
grass, of the mode of cutting and bleaching; having given you the best
account I am able, as to the sorts of grass to be employed in this
business; and having, in my former communications, given you specimens of
the plat wrought from the several sorts of straw, I might here close my
letter; but as it may be useful to speak of _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 matter_ 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 itself_, 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, howev