Many other factors, in addition to the availability of water power, were responsible for the 19th-century migration of people off the hills and down to the valleys. A serious land shortage gripped Connecticut, a shortage born of a constantly growing population. The high productivity of the state's farms had contributed to the shortage by supporting this growth. Rather than remain on their parents' small acreage, Connecticut's sons and daughters streamed out of the state in search of new land to clear and farm. But with the coming of the industrial age, many people in search of a livelihood began to make the shorter trip to the new valley towns rather than loading up a wagon for frontier country in the great American West.

In addition, the high productivity of Uplands farms had camouflaged the ultimately harmful effects of some early agricultural practices. The most significant effects were over-working of fields and poor plowing practices on steep slopes, which depleted the rich coat of topsoil. Eventually, Uplands farmers found that much of their worn-out land could not compete with the incredible yields that their children in the Midwest were getting from the newly broken prairie sod. Many fields that had once yielded crops were abandoned, and in some instances whole farms were given up. Only the stone walls were left behind. Forests reclaimed much of the hills. The land shortage was over -at least for the moment.

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