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GENERAL REPORT OF THE JUDGES OF GROUP VIII. 3 Carolina, Vermont, Maine, Virginia, Texas, and others of the United States. CLASS 229.—Coarse Fabrics of Grass, Rattan, Cocoa-nut, and Bark. The Exhibition was remarkably rich in these exhibits; and the display was in all respects most satisfactory. The various novel, economical, and useful articles of rattan deserve special notice, while the grasses and barks, in fibre and fabrics, evince considerable prog ress, and indicate the wonderful expansion in this direction which may yet be expected. In mattings,—Chinese, Japanese, palm-leaf, grass, and rushes; floor-cloths of rattan, cocoa-nut fibre, aloe, etc.,— it was satisfactory to observe the thorough blending of the artistic and the useful. There is, however, a vast field yet to be explored in the collection of the different varieties of these fibres, and in the em ployment of more of them in each fabric, as well as in the invention of machinery suitable for the purpose. This may be encouraged by the increased demand likely to arise for floor-cloth, mattings, etc., on sanitary grounds,—especially in the heated miasmatic regions of America and elsewhere. CLASS 665.—Raw Cotton, Ginned, etc. In this class there was scarcely any foreign competition, the cottons exhibited being almost entirely of American growth. Brazil, indeed, furnished, in small bales, some excellent specimens of the various descriptions produced in that empire, known as Pernambuco, Paraiba, Santos, Bahia, Maranham, and Maccio cotton. From India, two bales, of the usual size, of Dhollera, Hingunghut, Oomrawuttee, Broach, Dhavvar, Bengal, and Madras cottons were exhibited, not for compe tition, but as an illustration of the mode in which the raw material is prepared and sent to market. From Egypt, and some other minor cotton-growing coilntries, small samples were furnished, which served to show their progress and capabilities; but nearly all the large com mercial bales were from the Southern States of the Union. Some remarkably fine specimens of Sea Island cotton, grown in America, the Fiji Islands, Queensland, and elsewhere, excited much admiration. A quantity of cotton was drawn from the separate bales by expert samplers; and each lot, having a number attached to it, was examined, without the possibility of any one’s knowing in what district or by what planter it had been grown, in order to secure a perfectly impar tial decision. When the names of the successful competitors were disclosed, it was discovered that one of them was a colored planter.