RURAL HOURS. 
3 2 
public ball or dinner ; but an exhibition of this kind is of far more 
real interest and importance than any meeting for mere amuse- 
ment. 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 oui' 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 inter- 
esting, and highly creditable to the housewives of the comity. 
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 hum- 
ble in quality, much used in the country, rag carpeting, some of 
which may be seen in every farm-house, and common in the vil- 
lages also ; strips of cotton, woollen, or linen are cut, sewed to- 
gether, and dyed of different colors, when they are woven with a 
warp of tow, in Venetian patterns. Some of these are very pret- 
ty and neat. One of the best and largest country inns in the in- 
terior of this State is almost wholly carpeted in this way. In 
