public ball or dinner; but an exhibition of this kind is of far more real interest and importance than any meeting for mere amusement. These agricultural fairs are among the most pleasing as well as most important gatherings we country people know of.
The cattle and the domestic manufactures form much the most important features in our fairs. The stock of this county is not thought remarkable, I believe, either one way or the other; but some prizes from the State Society have been distributed among us. Our domestic manufactures, however, are really very interesting, and highly creditable to the housewives of the county. Some of the flannels and carpeting are of excellent quality. A very short time since, before imported carpets were reduced as low in price as they are to-day, a large amount of carpeting was made by families in the inland counties, and some of the best houses were carpeted throughout with domestic manufactures, the wool being raised on the farm, and spun, dyed, and woven in the house, or in the immediate neighborhood. At this moment many such carpets are found in our county, and are probably thought imported by those who are not aware how much work of the kind is done among our rural population. Some are made on the Venetian patterns, like stair carpeting, but others are imitations of ingrain. There is still another kind of carpeting, more humble in quality, much used in the country, rag carpeting, some of which may be seen in every farm-house, and common in the villages also; strips of cotton, woollen, or linen are cut, sewed together, and dyed of different colors, when they are woven with a warp of tow, in Venetian patterns. Some of these are very pretty and neat. One of the best and largest country inns in the interior of this State is almost wholly carpeted in this way. In
