238 



CONNECTICUT. 



ing on the track; 13 were intoxicated, and 9 

 each were at crossings, and jumping on and 

 off trains. 



To provide that all minor children, even 

 those employed in factories, might partake of 

 the advantages of school instruction, a special 

 law, "concerning the employment of children 

 under fourteen years of age," was enacted in 

 a former session, having in view to conciliate 

 the interests of the State and a 1 ! parties con- 

 cerned in the matter. From the report last 

 made to the State Board of Education by 

 their agent, who is himself one of the board, 

 it appears that, having conferred with the 

 manufacturers about the law, they were ready 

 to cooperate on their part to its success ; but 

 that some of the parents were unwilling to 

 take their children out of the factories for 

 that purpose, and positively refused to send 

 them to school if relieved of employment. 

 The agent further stated that, on subsequent 

 consultations held with the manufacturers, 

 these had consented to divide such children 

 in their employ into two or three classes, and 

 let them out of the factory at different times 

 by turns; and that the better to secure the 

 enforcement of the law, and in a manner com- 

 pel the parents to obey it, they had unani- 

 mously signed the following agreement : " We 

 hereby agree that, from and after the begin- 

 ning of the next term of our public school (or 

 schools) we will employ no children under 

 fourteen years of age, except those who are 

 provided with a certificate from the local 

 school-officers of actual attendance at school 

 the full term required by law." He suggested 

 " an amendment to the factory law, compel- 

 ling the attendance at school of all the chil- 

 dren within its jurisdiction three months in 

 each year, except in cases of extreme destitu- 

 tion, which may be decided by the select- 

 men." A like amendment was suggested by 

 the Board of Education, and also recommend- 

 ed by the Governor in his message. The 

 amendment passed, and the law applies to 

 other children besides those employed in 

 factories. 



The normal school for the education and 

 training of future teachers in the public schools 

 is in successful operation. The number of per- 

 sons in attendance there last year was 148. A 

 change was effected during the year, by act of 

 the Legislature, in the management of Yale Col- 

 lege. Its corporation heretofore consisted of 

 eleven gentlemen who fill vacancies in their own 

 number, and the Governor, the Lieutenant- 

 Governor, and six senior Senators of the State. 

 As it rarely occurred that any of the Senators 

 attended the meetings of the corporation, for 

 this and some other reasons of expediency, 

 the Governor suggested, as agreeable to the 

 interests of all parties concerned, that the 

 State should surrender part of her representa- 

 tion in the board of that corporation, the new 

 members to be elected by the alumni. An act 

 was passed by the General Assembly of 1871, 



giving the graduates of Yale College the right 

 to choose, at the commencement of 1872 and 

 thereafter, six persons from their own number 

 to take the place of the six senior Senators of 

 the State who have been heretofore members 

 of the corporation by virtue of their offices. 

 Prof. Noah Porter was elected president of 

 the institution during the year. 



The charitable institutions are well cared 

 for by the State. They seem to be under very 

 efficient management and conduct for the re- 

 alization of the purpose severally intended in 

 their establishment. 



The organization of the military force of 

 Connecticut has been changed by act of the 

 Legislature, objections and complaints having 

 been raised against encampments and other 

 features of the former system. The General 

 Assembly of 1870 appointed a committee to 

 inquire into the whole subject; the committee 

 reported the result of their labors at the ses- 

 sion of 1871, presenting to the Assembly the 

 draft of a new military law ; and, after discus- 

 sion, this law, with some amendments arid 

 alterations made in it, was passed and is now 

 in force. It retains the encampment system 

 of the former law, somewhat modified, but 

 greatly diminishes the number of men and 

 officers, reducing the whole military body into 

 four regiments of infantry and two sections 

 of artillery; the regiments to be severally 

 located in the four congressional districts of 

 the State. 



Fish-culture is cared for in Connecticut 

 with remarkable solicitude, and bids fair to 

 add largely to the material resources of the 

 State by furnishing her people with abundant 

 and new articles of food as well as trade. 

 The design is to introduce in the Connecticut 

 waters new varieties of well-known and mar- 

 ketable fish, as bass and others ; and also to 

 replenish them with a greater abundance of 

 fish belonging to the best varieties already 

 existing there. The State commissioners of 

 fisheries who were appointed five years ago 

 to attend to that interest, and for the prosecu- 

 tion of whose labors and experiments an an- 

 nual appropriation is made by the Legislature, 

 have given in their last report a good account 

 of the efforts which they have made in those 

 directions, and which they intend to continue 

 in future, especially with regard to salmon, 

 which " was formerly plentiful in the Con- 

 necticut and other rivers of the State, but 

 disappeared many years ago." During the 

 summer of 1871 the commissioners placed 

 several thousand young salmon in the smaller 

 streams emptying into the Housatonic and 

 other rivers, and propose to introduce fry 

 every year until 1875 or 1876, by which time 

 they confidently anticipate "that the true 

 salmon will be permanently colonized in the 

 rivers of the State." They seem to have been 

 particularly successful in their endeavors to 

 repeople the Connecticut waters with shad, 

 the extraordinarily abundant catch last year, 



