Back in colonial times, mattresses were made of goose down feathers. While this made for a very luxurious sort of mattress, it wasn’t as firm a mattress as some would have liked.
In an effort to create more firmness in such mattresses, ropes were tied around the mattress width-wise at the tope, middle and bottom and pulled tight in order to condense the goose down feathers. The tighter the ropes were pulled, the firmer the mattress. For those who preferred a firmer mattress, this provided a better night’s sleep than the unbound mattresses.
Historically Speaking 