water and easy transportation exists within the state boundaries. The industrialization and urbanization of Connecticut's economy and land use could not have happened here without the landscapes and resources to support these changes.

Of course, many social factors have been crucial to the industrialization of Connecticut. Many of the great advances of 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century industry and science were conceived here, making Connecticut a growth center of ideas: John Fitch and the first steamboat, Eli Whitney and the first mass-production line, Colt's revolver, Charles Goodyear's vulcanizing process for rubber, Dr. Horace Wells' invention of anesthesia, the first American agricultural experiment station, et cetera - what one might call the "Yankee ingenuity" factor. Also, Connecticut was settled early, and good educational facilities and infrastructure have been in place for some time. The state has long been economically mature with a large labor force at its disposal. Perhaps most important today is Connecticut's central location in a heavily populated part of the world. Nearly 30 percent of the United States' population and over 60 percent of Canada's population live within 500 miles of Hartford.' A large wealthy market thus is close at hand to Connecticut business.

But even these socioeconomic and pure economic influences have been affected by resource constraints. The large wealthy market is here to a great degree simply because the land has been able to support a large urban population. And the ability of the land not only to support the population but also to produce a surplus (as Connecticut's farms demonstrated during the Revolutionary War) also has contributed to development, for through surplus comes capital and through capital comes industry.

One further aspect of Connecticut's land has contributed to the success of development, but it's one which is so much around us that it is often not remarked upon. People like Connecticut. They're happy here. They like the rolling hills, rippling streams, winter whiteness, springtime euphoria, summer sun, and fiery fall foliage. It's not a spectacular landscape, like Colorado's Rocky Mountains, but one that is just plain pretty and friendly. No one ever called Colorado quaint, but it's a word that well suits much of Connecticut.

102