ribbons of land with a frontage of only fifty or a hundred
feet and a depth of a mile or more. That was the usual
course pursued; each child had his strip, and either
undertook to get a living out of it or sold his land to
an adjoining heir. In any case, the houses and barns of
the one who came into ownership of these thin oblongs
were always situated at or near the water-front, so that
the work of farming the land necessitated a great deal
of travelling back and forth. Too many of the habitants,
accordingly, got into the habit of spending all their
time on the fields nearest the house and letting the rear
grow wild. The situation militated against proper rotation
of crops, and in many ways proved an obstacle to progress.
The trouble was not that the farms were too small to
afford the family a living. In point of area they were
large enough; but their abnormal shape rendered it
difficult for the habitant to get from them their full
productive power with the rather short season of cultivation
that the climate allowed.

So important a handicap did this situation place upon
the progress of agriculture that in 1744 the governor
and the intendant drew the attention of the home authorities
to it, and urged that some remedy be provided. With simple
faith in the healing power of a royal edict, the king
promptly responded with a decree which ordered that no
habitant should thenceforth build his house and barn on
any plot of land which did not have at least one and
one-half lineal arpents of frontage (about three hundred
feet). Any buildings so erected were to be demolished.