An 1838 view of Newtown, a hilltop farming town in the Western Uplands.

hills and ridges, making for a trip long in miles, or it could take roads straight up and down the slopes, making for a trip long in toil. In either case, the condition of the roads was often abysmal, with many deep ruts and fathomless potholes.

The roads were not uniformly bad. It was noted by Samuel Peters in the 1780s that "the roads from north to south are generally level and good; from east to west hilly, and bad for carriages"' Even today, with modern graded roads blasted through bedrock, the east-west routes are roller-coaster rides in comparison to north-south roads. There are also many fewer east-west roads, and those that exist tend to run for shorter distances than north-south routes. These differences result from the general north-south alignment of most of the hills and valleys of Connecticut, a grain of the landscape that is hard for roads to run against.

In addition to the difficulty of getting about in this rugged landscape, the Yankee husbandman discovered another disadvantage to

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