RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUiNTY 



deeper insight into the advantages of special branches 

 of farming, the farmer is gradually seeing the benefits 

 of organized effort. Thus the Grange, the Pomologi- 

 cal Society, the Dairymen's Association, the Poultry 

 Association, and many other organizations are devel- 

 oping a tendency, among those who are interested in 

 certain specialties, to work together, as well as to learn 

 from each other's experiences. 



The farm families of Litchfield County have been 

 especially fortunate in the opportunities afforded for 

 education. While the public schools, probably, have 

 averaged no better than in other rural sections of Con- 

 necticut, secondary schools under private management 

 have been more general. In the early days the rural 

 academy was an educational center in nearly every town, 

 and later such schools as the Gunnery, Robbins, Taft, 

 Kent and Hotchkiss have offered educational advan- 

 tages within the financial reach of the farmer's family. 

 The movement to consolidate our public schools has 

 been slow, due often to long distances and bad roads 

 for transporting the children; but the general good 

 roads movement is paving the way for this. The work 

 of our schools, too, is slowly but surely shaping itself to 

 conform to the life of the rural towns. What such 

 towns as Salisbury and Washington and Winsted are 

 doing to introduce nature study, practical mechanics 

 and the household arts into their work, is but an index 



C"23 



