In addition to the cold and hostile population, the soil is very, very rocky.
So rocky that you'd spend all your time prying and pulling rocks out of the soil to carry them all the way to the edge of your field. Not fun.
Each winter's frost heave brings new rocks to the surface every year, so every year you have to do it all over again.
I never knew that about New England rocks.
Back home in eastern NC, you gotta learn how to grow stuff in piney, acidic, sandy soil. It can be done, just not easily. Helps to know a chicken farmer, if you know what I mean.