RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



well equipped bathroom are common, and sometimes, if 

 power lines pass the farm, electric lighting is installed. 

 The rural mail system, which provides for daily deliv- 

 ery, has made general the taking of daily papers, while 

 magazines and other forms of wholesome circulating 

 literature are found in nearly every country home. The 

 advent of good roads, accompanied by the automobile, 

 is providing means for freer social intercourse between 

 families in the country and between the country folk 

 and their city cousins. 



On the farm proper the sulky plow, the wheel har- 

 row, the grain seeder, the horse corn-planter, the potato 

 planter, the mowing machine, the horse rake, the hay 

 loader, the reaper, the corn harvester and the potato 

 digger have greatly reduced the hand labor required in 

 performing the various operations of fitting the land, of 

 planting, of cultivating and of harvesting. In fact, so 

 general is the use of machine power that the farmer of 

 to-day needs to be a good mechanic to handle his farm- 

 ing operations to the best advantage. 



As has already been pointed out, the chief branch of 

 farming throughout the county to-day is dairying. Con- 

 necticut has long been known as a dairy State. Her 

 many thriving towns and cities provide a home market 

 for milk, butter and cheese, while on account of her 

 location, midway between New York and Boston, her 

 surplus milk quickly reaches these large centers. Up to 



[100 ;] 



