REPORTS OF DELEGATES. 201 



the fabrication of articles belonging to this department of our 

 fairs, than in this vicinity. This results, doubtless, from the 

 fact that in a seafaring community women arc comparatively 

 free from the multitudinous and wearisome labors which con- 

 sume the time and demand the constant attention of the 

 fa liners' wives and daughters, in more strictly agricultural 

 districts. 



The soil of this county is every where light, but with good 

 cultivation produces most excellent crops of grass, potatoes, and 

 garden vegetables of all sorts. The corn is rather dwarfish in 

 appearance, with usually only one ear upon a stalk, and the 

 entire plant is as unlike the corn of the Connecticut Valley as 

 that is different from the same plant in Alabama. The corn- 

 cake, however, as tested by your delegate, could not be distin- 

 guished from the best eaten elsewhere. 



The officers of the Barnstable Society deserve much praise for 

 the admirable manner in which the dinner, a most important 

 part of the occasion, was conducted. The tables were well 

 spread for about four hundred, and it was pleasant to see how 

 attractive they were to the people, who pressed into the hall as 

 if expecting to enjoy themslves and get their money's worth. 

 Capital arrangements were also made for the intellectual portion 

 of the entertainment, and the elevated platform at one end of 

 the hall was filled with a fine assortment of after-dinner speakers. 

 Among the crowd of invited guests were Hon. M. P. Wilder, 

 Secretary Flint, Judge Russell, and Sidney Webster, Esq., of. 

 Boston ; the Boston Tigers, a splendid military company under 

 command of Major Rogers, and accompanied by Gilmore's 

 Band ; the Nantucket Band, and a large number of distin- 

 guished editors, lawyers, doctors, generals, colonels, &c, <fcc. 



The newly elected president, Judge Marston, exhibited a 

 degree of tact and readiness in the management of the speak- 

 ing, which was quite delightful to one who has repeatedly seen 

 the golden moments of similar occasions worse than wasted by 

 the want of judgment and promptness on the part of the pre- 

 siding officer. With the excellent address by Dr. Loring, on 

 agricultural education ; the martial music and the parade of 

 soldiers ; the festive entertainment and wise and witty speeches ; 

 and the ball, which occupied the night, the Barnstable fair 



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