“ Indeed, manufacturing in Connecticut is notable for its early beginning and its development of certain branches beyond that of the other states. Iron products were manufactured throughout the 18th century, nails were made before 1716 and were exported from the colony, and it was in Connecticut that cannon were cast for the Continental troops and the chains were made to block the channel of the Hudson river to British ships. Tinware was manufactured in Berlin, Hartford county, as early as 1770, and tin, steel and iron goods were peddled from Connecticut through the colonies. ”

“ After the war the Republicans were more frequently successful at the polls than the Democrats. Representation in the lower house of the general assembly, by the constitution of 1818, was based on the townships, each township having two representatives, except townships created after 1818, which had only one each; this method constituted a serious evil when, in the transition from agriculture to manufacturing as the leading industry, the population became concentrated to a considerable degree in a few large cities, and the relative importance of the various townships was greatly changed. ”

“ The government of Connecticut is also notable for the variety of its administrative boards. Among these are a board of pardons, a state library committee, a board of mediation and arbitration for adjustment of labour disputes, a board of education and a railway commission. The bureau of labour statistics has among its duties the giving of information to immigrant labourers regarding their legal rights: it has free employment agencies at Bridgeport, Norwich, Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury. ”

“ The relations of Connecticut with neighbouring colonies were notable for numerous and continuous quarrels in the 17th century. Soon after the first settlements were made, a dispute arose with Massachusetts regarding the boundary between the two colonies; after the brief war with the Pequot Indians in 1637 a similar quarrel followed regarding Connecticut’s right to the Pequot lands, and in the New England Confederation (established in 1643) friction between Massachusetts and Connecticut continued. ”

“ Manufactures form the principal source of Connecticut’s wealth,—manufacturing gave occupation in 1900 to about one-fifth of the total population, and the products in that year ranked the state eleventh among the states of the American Union. ”

“ But the greater inequalities in township representation subsisted, although in 1874 an amendment had given all townships of 5000 inhabitants two seats in the lower house, every other one “to be entitled to its present representation,” and in 1876 another amendment had provided that no township incorporated thereafter should be entitled to a representative “unless it has at least 2500 inhabitants, and unless the town from which the major portion of its territory is taken has also at least 2500 inhabitants.” ”

“ Although three-fourths of the land surface is included in farms, only 7% of this three-fourths is cultivated; but agriculture is of considerable economic and historic interest. The accounts of the fertility of the Connecticut valley were among the causes leading to the English colonization, and until the middle of the nineteenth century agriculture was the principal occupation. The soils, which are composed largely of sands, except in the upland valleys where alluvial loams with the sub-soils of clay are found, were not suitable for tillage. ”

“ Difficulty with Rhode Island was caused by the conflict between that colony’s charter and the Connecticut charter regarding the western boundary of Rhode Island; and the encroachment of outlying Connecticut settlements on Dutch territory, and the attempt to extend the boundaries of New York to the Connecticut river, gave rise to other disputes. ”

“ Education.—Education has always been a matter of public interest in Connecticut. Soon after the foundation of the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, schools similar to the English Latin schools were established. The Connecticut Code of 1650 required all parents to educate their children, and every township of 50 householders (later 30) to have a teacher supported by the men of family, while the New Haven Code of 1656 also encouraged education. In 1672 the general court granted 600 acres of land to each county for educational purposes ”

“ Women may vote for school officials. The right to decide upon a citizen's qualifications for suffrage is vested in the selectmen and clerk of each township. A property qualification, found in the original constitution, was removed in 1845. The Fifteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution was ratified (1869) by Connecticut, but negroes were excluded from the suffrage by the state constitution until 1876. ”

“ This charter had been secured without the knowledge or consent of the New Haven colonists and they naturally protested against the union with Connecticut. But on account of the threatened absorption of a part of the Connecticut territory by the Colony of New York granted to the duke of York in 1664, and the news that a commission had been appointed in England to settle intercolonial disputes, they finally assented to the union in 1665. Hartford then became the capital of the united colonies, but shared that honour with New Haven from 1701 until 1873. ”

“ The general tendency was towards the centralization of industry, the number of establishments in the leading industries increasing less than 5%, while the capital and the value of the products increased respectively 33·5% and 42%. Among the new manufactories were a ship-building establishment at Groton near New London, which undertook contracts for the United States government, and a compressed-air plant near Norwich. Of the 359 manufactured products classified by the United States census, 249, or almost seven-tenths, were produced in Connecticut. ”

“ Minerals.—The mineral industries of Connecticut have had a fortune very similar to that of agriculture. The early settlers soon discovered metals in the soil and began to work them. About 1730 the production of iron became an important industry in the vicinity of Salisbury, and from Connecticut iron many of the American military supplies in the War of Independence were manufactured. ”

“ One company, the New York, New Haven & Hartford, controlled 87% of this railway mileage in 1904, and practically all the steamboat lines on Long Island Sound. Since 1895 electric railways operated by the trolley system have steadily developed, their mileage in 1909 approximating 895 m. By their influence the rural districts have been brought into close touch with the cities, and many centres of population have been so connected as to make them practically one community.
Population.—The population of Connecticut in 1880 was 622,700; in 1890, 746,258—an increase of 19·8% ”

“ Other evidences of the transition in agricultural life are that in Tolland and Windham counties the value of farm buildings exceeded that of farm land, that in Middlesex and Fairfield counties the acreage as well as the value of the farms declined, that native farm labour and ownership were being replaced by foreign labour and ownership; while dependent land tenure is insignificant, 87% of the farms being worked by their owners. The state board of agriculture holds annual conventions for the discussion of agricultural problems. ”

“ At the N. this lowland is about 15 m. wide; at the S. it narrows to only 5 m. and its total area is about 600 sq. m. Its formation was caused by the removal of a band of weak rocks by erosion after the general upland surface had been first formed near sea-level and then elevated and tilted gently S. or S.E.; in this band of weak rocks were several sheets of hard igneous rock (trap) inclined from the horizontal several degrees, and so resistant that they were not removed but remained to form the “trap ridges” such as West Rock Ridge near New Haven and the Hanging Hills of Meriden. ”

“ These provisions did not remedy the grosser defects, and as proposals for an amendment of the constitution could be submitted to the people only after receiving a majority vote of the lower house, all further attempts at effective reform seemed to be blocked, owing to the unwillingness of the representatives of the smaller townships to surrender their unusual degree of power. ”

“ Neither husband nor wife acquires by marriage any interest in the property of the other; the earnings of the wife are her sole property and she has the right to make contracts as if unmarried. After residence in the state for three years divorce may be obtained on grounds of fraudulent contract, desertion, neglect for three years, adultery, cruelty, intemperance, imprisonment for life and certain crimes. ”

“ There is a military commutation tax of $2, and all persons neglecting to pay it or to pay the poll tax are liable to imprisonment. A state board of equalization has been established to insure equitable taxation. ”

“ In 1900, 5·9% of the population at least 10 years of age was illiterate. All children between 7 and 16 are required to attend school, but those over 14 are excused if they labour; every township of more than 10,000 inhabitants must support an evening school for those over 14 ”

“ Then, after a long schooling in ingenuity by the system of household industries, came the division of labour, the introduction of machinery and the modern factory. Transportation of products is facilitated by water routes (chiefly coasting) , for which there are ports of entry at New Haven, Hartford, Stonington, New London and Bridgeport, and by 1013 m. ”