RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



of the single town of Salisbury cover nearly 1700 acres 

 and afford natural beauty spots as well as popular sum- 

 mer resorts. 



In many places in the county will be found extensive, 

 low, peaty tracts of land, that once represented lake 

 areas, but which have been filling in for thousands of 

 years by the slow growth and decay of vegetation. In 

 some instances such areas still have a small lake or pond 

 near the center, as in the case of Beeslick Pond in Salis- 

 bury. During the slow processes of time, water-weeds 

 crept into these old lakes, peat moss and bushes reached 

 out from the shallow water at the edge, and in the 

 course of many years the lake was transformed into 

 a mere bog, rich in all kinds of botanical treasures. 

 After many more years, as the outcome of changes due 

 to tillage and drainage, it may have become a good 

 piece of mowing land. 



In mountainous regions there are sure to be brooks, 

 and wherever there are mountain brooks there ravines 

 will be found. In the hills of Litchfield County are 

 found some of the wildest, most picturesque ravines 

 in New England. Kent Falls ravine is of peculiar 

 beauty, carved as it is partly out of white limestone. On 

 the banks and limestone ledges grow the most graceful 

 of ferns— the Cystopteris bulbifera, or bladder fern; 

 while the abundance of the Camptosorus rhizophyllus, 

 or walking fern, is a delight to the botanist. 



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