New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-12

ewes and bulls, heavily insured before they go,
and sent with a corporars guard of watchers
Then there are marvellous cheeses and butter
crystal jellies and homemade wines. lnVari-
ably attended by their anxious owners, sharp
eyed matrOns or pretty but lOud-vOlced girls.
In the smaller fairs countless chickering's and
jealOusies grow out of these competitions, tor
city housewives must remember that there are
yet obscure, fOsslIzed communities where the
larder is not supplied. as in town, from the
nearest grocery. There are legions OF GOOD
women who never heard of bric-a-brac or
decorative science, to whom their juicy hams,
their cowslip-tinted butter, their translucent
jellies are works of high art, for which they
have earned worthy renOwn.
1t is impossible to estimate too highly the
healthy and Stimulating influence which these
fairs have had upon our agricultural life. we
owe to the competition which they induced
the introduction in the last quarter century
of all the finer breeds of imported cattle and
poultry, the rapid dissemination OF new ana
better kinds of vegetables and fruits, and
the improvement in the manner OF working
the soil. Steam ploughs, cultivators, washing
and wringing machines-all machinery, In
short, which lifts the load of labor from the
farmer and the farmers wife-are found only
in sections where these yearly gatherings have
civilized and reused the people. In the noun
taiDs of the South and other districts where
there are no fairs, you may see the farmer
winnowing his grain by means of canvas sails,
and his wife weaving his clothes on hand
loom, with barked saplings for beams.
A stronger and better effect than even the
improvements in stock and machinery has
been wrought by these fairs in the farmer
himself. He is by so much moro a man
every time he comes in contact with
his fellow men, or is forced to meas
ure himself with them. Every isolated
life tends to narrowness of ideas, and this is
especially the case when the man thus living
apart has the Americans natural self-cOm-
placency and conceit to begin with. There
are farm neighbOrhoOds in New-England,
Dutch Pennsylvania and the South, where
creeds and customs had grown inexOrable and
hard as DracO's laws, until the fairs broke
them up. The best Office they perform, how
ever, is perhaps to the women of the farms.
There is no class whose lives are harder or
duller than the meagre, mddle-aged wives Of
small ldIIneTSJ VINO DIXIE COOh, ChuAn tho yOdi
round, rising before dawn and stitching into
the night, to save the spare pennies of the
small income. Their glimpses of the world
and friction with other people come through
the agricultural fairs. Outside daylight breaks
into their kitchens once in year at least
The programmes for this years fairs announce
plenty of new ideas. Exhibitions of art
needlework, and decorated pottery are to be
made far out in the West. The education
of the Great Fair of 1876 is still at work. In
some States, as in Minnesota, political meet
ings are held in conjunction with the fair.
Our farmer, whether he come from the back
woods of the Blue Ridge or the prairies of
the West, is not going to be startled by any
ideas, however new. He has a shrewd COM
mon sense, up to which he brings art and
politics, and political leaders too, for trial.
They seldom meet with a more independent
iudOe