the advantage of travel and contact with the world, and
the adding of profitable outside industries to farmhouse life is an
important step in this direction.

CHAPTER VI.

WOOLEN RUGS.

There are two conditions which will make home weaving valuable. The
first is that the material, whether it be of cotton or wool, should be
grown upon the farm, and that it could not be sold in the raw state at
a price which would make the growing of it profitable. In wool crops
there are certain odds and ends of ragged, stained and torn locks,
which would injure the appearance of the fleece, and are therefore
thrown aside, and this waste is perfectly suitable for rug weaving.

In cotton there is not the amount of waste, but the fibre itself is
not as valuable, and a portion of it could be reserved for home
weaving, even though it should not be turned to more profitable
account.

The next condition is that the time used in weaving is also waste or
left-over time. If housekeeping requires only a quarter or half of a
woman's time, weaving is more restful and interesting, as well as
more profitable, than idleness; and in almost every family there are
members to whom partial employment would be a boon.

There is no marketable value for spare time or for individual taste,
so that the women of the family possessing these can start a weaving
enterprise, counting only the cost of material at growers' prices. If
they can card, spin, dye and weave as well as the women of two
generations did before them, they have a most profitable industry in
their own hands in the shape of weaving.

If materials must be purchased the profit is smaller, and the question
arises whether spare time and personal taste and skill can be made
profitable. This depends entirely upon circumstances and character.
When circumstances are or can be made favourable, and there is
industry and ambition behind them, domestic weaving is a beautiful and
profitable occupation.

There are many neighbourhoods where the conditions are exactly
suitable to the prosecution of important domestic industries--localities
where sheep are raised and wool is a regular product, or where cotton
is grown and the weaving habit is not extinct. This is true of many
New England neighbourhoods and of the whole Cumberland Mountain
region, and it is in response to a demand for direction of unapplied
advantages that this book is written.

I am convinced that the weaving of domestic wool or