The Bay State’s best-known feature is Cape Cod, curling like an arm around its large bay. This and many landscapes were shaped as gigantic glaciers pushed south. The Connecticut River Valley was scooped out, and then later filled in with fertile soils. Thin soils elsewhere limit farming.

Though there are many positives, Massachusetts’s 6.5 million people face challenges. It is a crowded and expensive place. Boston is choked with the traffic and sprawl of modern urban life. There is a shortage of affordable housing and a wealth of traffic congestion.

Massachusetts ranks second among cranberry-producing states. Its industry depends on electrical equipment, machinery, metal products, scientific instruments, printing and publishing, and tourism.