RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



the entire life of many rural towns. The time will 

 again come when these numerous small waterfalls will 

 be harnessed to provide electric power and light for 

 many farm homes, and thus they will again be of value. 



Of the forests that clothed this region when it was 

 first settled scarcely a vestige remains. Until recently 

 there was a bit of what might be called primeval forest 

 in Colebrook, but even this has not been spared the 

 woodman's axe. On the mountains there are a few 

 spots too steep and inaccessible to be lumbered, and here 

 we still find a few forest giants. But the hills are cov- 

 ered with pine, chestnut and birch, in spite of frequent 

 cuttings and forest fires. Wherever we go up and down 

 throughout the county, there is forest beauty every- 

 where. Perhaps the most notable example of the 

 preservation of the stately monarchs of the forest is to 

 be found on the Calhoun estate in Cornwall. Here 

 may be seen a beautiful grove of pines, many trees of 

 which tower majestically a hundred feet or more in 

 height and have trunks three to four feet in diameter. 

 A botanist, rushing through the county on the train, 

 noted the abundance of paper birches. "It is a good 

 country," he commented, "for paper birches do not 

 thrive on poor soil." This is true, and though the soils 

 of the county are extremely varied, yet the strictly agri- 

 cultural lands are second to none. 



The soils of the hill country, and in general those 



en 



