This custom of bleaching, in a patriarchal way in one’s own tent, brought out considerable inventiveness on the part of go-ahead manufacturers, and it was no uncommon thing for some fresh development of bleaching, on one or another plait, to establish the reputation of a manufacturer, who, until his secret leaked out, endeavoured to exploit to the full the value of his superior article. But this kind of bleaching only cleaned and purified, it did not materially alter the natural condition of the article bleached. In the first place manufacturers were not laboratory chemists, and it was the efforts of the Italians, the producers of the plait which was supplanting the British product, that gave birth to a chemical bleach, which for some time was unrivalled in England. For some years the bleached Italian Pedal of Messrs. Burgisser & Co., of Florence, had no superior, and was for a long period renowned for the purity and beauty of its colour process. But the secret subsequently leaked out, and bleaching establishments in this country soon acquired them, and it was not long before the results obtained here compared favourably with the Italian. For some years this bleach, which not only cleansed and purified the straw, but also changed its actual tone by bringing more into colour line the straws of darker hue, was accepted by the world as the best possible; and one may say that, although later developments have considerably widened the scope of operations, the results of this period, which may be called the intermediate cycle of straw bleaching, were in their way quite equal to any now achieved. The only drawback to this bleach was that really inferior coloured plait could not be made serviceable for white. In the case of chip splints or in the case of cornstalks, only the best and clearest of either of these had been used for plaits for bleaching. This necessitated keeping two stocks of plait, for although the best coloured plait could be dyed black or other shade if necessary, the bad coloured straws could not be bleached, and further, one always had to pay more for the best coloured goods, which although to some extent this is even now the case, owing to the great possibilities opened up by the present bleaching processes, there is not the wide difference in price there used to be.