The Connecticut River floods a field in Windsor in 1984, replenishing the fertility of the land with a layer of nutrient-rich silt.

over the adjacent flood plain. This sedimentary manure feeds the most fertile lands of New England's most fertile region: the Connecticut River meadows of Glastonbury, Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford. Samuel Peters put it this way: "In short, the neighboring spacious and fertile meadow, arable, and other lands, combined with this noble river, are at once the beauty and main support of all New England."'

In rare, years, these normally beneficial floods have caused considerable damage. The flood of March 1936, a result of two weeks of steady rain and the melting of an unusually thick winter snow pack, caused an estimated 25 million dollars of property damage in Connecticut. The Connecticut River began rising on Wednesday, March 18, and by Saturday the 21st had surged to 37 1/2 feet above the river's base-level in Hartford. Much of Hartford and East Hartford is built on the Connecticut River flood plain, and residents watched as the region was transformed into a temporary Venice, streets drowned into canals.

Since 1936, there have been three more floods above 30 feet, in

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