Description

A aboiteau is a kind of Digue built by the Acadien S and the Quebecers to enable them to cultivate grounds gained on the sea or the rivers.

The principle is not only to prevent the sea invading the grounds with high tide, but also from evacuating with low tide water of flow coming from the rain and the snow melt. Thus, the recovered grounds are removed little by little from their content salt. This is why the Acadian ones surrounded their grounds of dams which channeled water and brought it to the flue which was provided with a mobile valve closing itself automatically with high tide and opening with low tide.

Origin

This principle of operation existed already in other parts of the world, and in particular in the area of the mid-west of France from which mainly the Acadian ones come, but the aboiteau is a particular evolution of this system which had to take into account the characteristics of Acadie or Quebec, namely a rigorous climate and tides among strongest in the world.

Nobody can say who invented the aboiteau. It is undoubtedly about a collective work which was developed and improved by the Acadian ones on several generations with the liking of the experiments.

Why the aboiteaux ones?

Acadie of the XVIIème century was almost entirely covered by the forest. However, the grounds gained on the forest always have a poor agricultural output. The Acadian ones then decided to cultivate the shores in seaside and at the edge of the coastal rivers which were daily subjected to flow and the backward flow. The recovered extents were not immediately productive because the content salt was initially to drop, which took several years. However, of wild grasses pushing very quickly on the hardly drained grounds, these surfaces were used almost at once as pasture while waiting for the setting in effective culture.

Thanks to aboiteaux, the Acadian ones had grounds whose output is estimated at 5 times that of a ground cleared on the forest. Acadie covered so large quantity then the aboiteaux one that those became one of the symbols about it, giving to Acadian the nickname “water clearers”.

This type of agriculture had nevertheless its disadvantages because the ground liftings required a daily maintenance, damage was to be repaired with each storm or strong tide, and an annual revision was necessary to each exit of winter.

The aboiteaux ones today

Much aboiteaux is still in state, and some were even built and used until in the Années 1950, for example with Dugas. It remains about it always a little everywhere in Acadie, like in the area of Kamouraska, in Quebec. One distinguishes the aboiteaux sailors (Beaubassin, River-with-Ducks) and the aboiteaux river ones (Memramcook, Port-Royal).

References

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