Page:Rural Hours.djvu/351

Rh eat all sorts of things; just now they are frequently mischievous in the maize-fields. They are good mimics, when trained, and a little given to thieving, like the magpie. We do not quarrel with them, however, for they are one of the few birds that pass the winter in our woods: at least, some of their flocks remain here, though others probably go off toward the coast. Friday, 29th.—Great change in the weather. Chilly, pinching day. The county fair of the Agricultural Society is now going on in the village, which is thronged with wagons and chilly-looking people. Three or four thousand persons, men, women, and children, sometimes attend these fairs; to-day the village is thought more crowded than it has been any time this year; neither the circus, nor menagerie, nor election, has collected so many people as the Fair.

The cattle-show is said to be respectable; the ploughing match and speech were also pronounced creditable to the occasion. Within doors there is the usual exhibition of farm produce and manufactures. The first department consists of butter, cheese, maple sugar, honey, a noble pumpkin, about five feet in circumference; some very fine potatoes, of the Carter and pink-eye varieties, looking as though there were no potato-disease in the world; some carrots and turnips also. Apples were the only fruit exhibited. Some of the butter and cheese was pronounced very good; and both the maple sugar and honey were excellent. Altogether, however, this part of the show was meagre; assuredly we might do much more than has yet been done in this county, with our vegetables and fruits. And a little more attention to the arrangement of the few objects of this kind exhibited at the Fair, is desirable; people take great pains in arranging a room for a