Rural Economy in New England 317 



thus, it was hoped, drainage would be provided for. This hope 

 was bound to be disappointed, however, as can be proven by obser- 

 vation of roads in outlying country districts in New England today 

 where similar practices are followed. In none of these early turn- 

 pikes, with the exception of a few between Boston and the coast 

 towns of Massachusetts, was any other surfacing material used 

 besides the natural soil of the region through which they passed.^ 

 In the light of such evidence as is available, it seems impossible 

 to ascribe to the turnpike movement in the years before 1810 any 

 significant improvement in the methods of land transportation in 

 southern New England, or any considerable reduction in the cost 

 of land carriage. It was still prohibitorily expensive to move bulkv 

 commodities for any distance beyond the borders of the inland town. 

 For many of the articles of farm production a distance of from ten 

 to twenty miles was the limit of profitable transportation ;2 beyond 

 this limit a few products such as cheese,^ butter, potash, maple sugar, 

 live stock, and, in some cases, salted beef and pork, could be carried; 

 but even in these cases the expense of carriage absorbed a large share 

 of the profit gained. 



' The turnpikes in Massachusetts were, on the whole, better constructed than 

 those in Connecticut. Exceptionally good roads were those leading from Bos- 

 ton to Salem, Newburyport and Providence. These were surfaced with gravel, 

 or with crushed stone, and cost to construct from $3,000 to $14,000 per mile. 

 In Connecticut there were in 1807, 770 miles of the ordinary type of turnpike 

 road, costing on the average from $500 to $1,000 per mile. The most expensive 

 turnpike in this state was that from Hartford to New Haven, a distance of 35 

 miles, costing, including sums spent in purchasing land, $2,280 per mile. Gal- 

 latin, Report on Roads and Canals, pp. 55-56. 



2 This estimate is based on bits of scattered evidence, such as the following 

 statement of the Rev. Samuel Goodrich in his Statistical Account of Ridgefield 

 in the County of Fairfield (Conn.): "Potatoes are very much used and increased 

 attempts are making to raise them for the market, but the distance from the mar- 

 ket is so great that it is not expected the practice will be general." The dis- 

 tance referred to as "too great" was fourteen miles, to Norwalk. MS. in library 

 of the Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Conn. In a letter from Robert 

 Fulton contained in Gallatin's Report on Roads and Canals, there are various 

 estimates of the cost of transportation of various commodities on the best turn- 

 pikes. These estimates vary from 10 to 30 cents per ton mile. At this rate 

 wood could not bear the cost of transport over twenty miles. Op. cit., pp. Ill, 

 116-117. See also Macmaster, History of U. S., III. 464. 



3 Cheese at this time sold at $160 a ton and butter at twice that price. See 

 Statistical Account of Litchfield, Conn,, p. 122. 



