French Survey System
French Survey System |
| "From the Ontario border down to the beginning of the estuary, the farmland runs in two delicate bands along the shores [of the St. Lawrence River], with roads like a pair of village main streets a thousand miles long, each parallel to the river. All the good land was broken long ago, occupied and divided among seigneurs and their sons, and then among tenants and their sons. Bleak wooden fences separate each strip of farm from its neighbor, running straight as rulers set at right angles to the river to form narrow rectangles pointing inland. Every inch of it is measured, and brooded over by notaries, and blessed by priests." Source: from the French-Canadian novel, Two Solitudes, by Hugh MacLennan. |
| The French long lot survey system resulted in elongated land grants and narrow strips of farms, or long lot farms. Farmsteads were built on each of the strips, resulting in shoe-string villages or Strassendorf (street village, in German). What prominent building is located in the middle of the village? |
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| Answer: the Roman Catholic parish church |
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