8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



he may impart that which may be equally valuable on others, thus 

 practicall}'^ carrying' out the doctrine of reciprocity, where the 

 reciprocity is not all on one side. 



That we may reap the greatest benefit from thus meeting to- 

 gether it is not only necessary that we be present ourselves, but 

 also our better halves and our children, that all may thereby obey 

 the injunction of the apostle to "look not alone on our own things 

 but also on the things of others ;" and that we may thereby "pro- 

 voke each other to good works." This meeting to compare notes 

 and products is what is known in common parlance as the " Show 

 and Fair," of which let us say a few words. 



At the fair we expect to see the best ©•f the herds and flocks, 

 the finest specimens of our grains and fruits, the formidable rows 

 of jars, tubs and boxes of golden butter, (golden in more senses 

 than one at modern prices) the luscious melting* cheese, the pre- 

 serves, jellies, jams and syrups, boots, shoes, valises, trunks, 

 robes, blankets, whips, harnesses and carriages of surpassing ex- 

 cellence and finest workmanship, the most useful agricultural and 

 mechanical implements too numerous to particularize ; all those 

 beautiful, useful, labor-saving, comfort-bestowing inventions for 

 the thrifty housewife, from a "Universal Wringer" (which will 

 wring anything but tears, never those unless tears of pity for our 

 mothers who did not have them) to a patent clothes-pin, and from 

 a pie-fork to a carpet sweeper. We also expect to see the handi- 

 work of the wives and daughters of the farmers, mechanics, mer- 

 chants, lawyers and ministers, in all their varieties and gradations ; 

 counterpanes, comfortables, blankets, shawls, hose, socks, mittens, 

 yarns, clouds, hoods, scarfs, tidies, rugs, carpets, ottoman covers, 

 embroidery, beadwork, drawing, painting, and what is far better 

 than all the rest, the fair authors themselves, in Grecian bends, 

 suggestive of the leaning tower of Pisa, waterfalls rivaling any- 

 thing to be found in the famed valley of the Yo Semite, loves of 

 bonnets of microscopic proportions, the whole surmounted by a 

 chignon towering as Mont Blanc, from which will be suspended 

 the curl of the period. But the laugh rnay not all be on one side, 

 for if we should see these fair ones of which I have been speaking, 

 under the escort of juvenile Beau Brummels, their hair parted in the 

 middle, logs encaseH in pants which are only to be drawn on by 

 liberal oiling, and co^ts suggestive of one of Barnum's bob-tailed 

 Shanghais, we §hould be compelled to believe that the world had 

 made even greater progress than I assumed when I commenced. 



