Agricultural Characteristics of Compton and Winslow Townships.
The French-Canadian settlers who began to arrive in North Winslow during the late 1840s were more adept woodsmen than their Scottish neighbours to the south. By 1851 they had cleared more land and were living in square-timber houses, whereas the Scots still lived in log shanties. However the Scots had brought more cattle, and this gap widened over the next twenty years as the amount of land they improved gained steadily over that of the French Canadians. This did not reflect a slowing down in the clearing of French-Canadian farms so much as an increase in the total size of Scots farms. By 1871 the average French-Canadian family had improved over forty percent of its farm, probably the maximum in such a hilly area, but that farm comprised only thirty hectares while Scots' farms were double this size. The Scots, like the English Canadians of Compton Township, were consolidating their holdings into fewer hands in order to increase their agricultural production. French Canadians, on the other hand, chose to stay in the area as long as possible by supplementing their farm income with work in the woods during the winter and early spring. Perhaps this reflects stronger family and community ties on the part of the French Canadians, but for cultural reasons it was obviously much easier for Anglo-Protestants to leave the province of QuΘbec.
