j. HANDBOOK OF CONNECTICUT AGRICULTURE. 



The soil, made up by the attrition and decay of granite, 

 limestone, trap, and sandstone, furnishes the mineral elements 

 needed for the growth of plants, held in keeping for future 

 ages, and yielding their stores of locked-up wealth to the 

 skill and industry of man. 



With wood and stone for building and water power every- 

 where abundant, manufactures, first for home consumption, 

 then for the world's use, have been an important feature in 

 the progress of the State. The iron mines of Salisbury and 

 other towns in Litchfield county, with furnaces and forges, 

 even before the Revolution, were making the best iron in the 

 country, furnishing much needed supplies of war material a 

 reputation still sustained. 



Almost all mineral substances exist in the State, but so 

 far only iron, marble, and limestone, other stones and clays, 

 have become of commercial importance. 



In naming the good things about Connecticut it would be 

 unpardonable to omit the shad in referring to the " harvest of 

 the sea," for everybody ought to know that the best shad 

 always return to their Connecticut home. The success of 

 the Fish commission in breeding this rover of the sea to main- 

 tain its abundance is very satisfactory. 



Climate. Though somebody is always complaining of the 

 weather, where will you find a more varied and healthful 

 climate than in Connecticut? Sheltered from the blasts of 

 the Atlantic by Long Island and Cape Cod, by the mountain 

 forests of Vermont and the Adirondacks from the Arctic waves, 

 while we receive all the tonic we can bear, we share also in 

 the kindly influence of the Gulf Stream and the zephyrs that 

 sweep with more or less power through the pines of the 

 south. If one wants wind, go to our hill tops ; if shelter, 

 seek some nook protected by forest covered hills and a grove 

 of white pine ; its sighs will soothe while the roar of the storm 

 on the hills marks the tempest which does not reach your 

 arcadian retreat. One of our mountain brooks with its gentle 

 murmur completes the scene, and it needs no landscape 

 gardener to improve upon nature. 



