Settlement pattern, environmental factors and ethnic background on a southwestern Quebec frontier (1795–1842)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In studies of frontier settlement patterns, different site factors are recognized as influential on the immigrant settlement process. Environmental factors such as soil features, while widely cited as crucial, have rarely been studied in enough depth to measure their relationship to other phenomena such as ethnic attractiveness. Qualitative and quantitative case studies in early 19th century Godmanchester township's sequence of land occupancy indicate that pioneer settlers in this region of Quebec were influenced by a mixed set of factors that changed over time. In reconstructing Godmanchester's land colonization process and pattern based on local historical sources and Lower‐Canada manuscript censuses of 1825, 1831 and 1842, the traditional way of understanding such processes was put into question. Geomorphological deposits, while remaining a relatively decisive factor in determining settlement patterns until the end of the 1820s, were gradually displaced by ethnic proximity, as revealed in censuses up to 1842. To understand this settlement pattern, one must consider the pioneers' goals from their perspective: they were primarily interested in self‐sufficiency and were not all necessarily market‐oriented farmers. From this standpoint, attractive land to settle seems more appropriate than the standard assumption of good land for cash‐crop farming. Dans les études portant sur la colonisation des fronts pionniers, les variables reconnues susceptibles d'orienter la marche du peuplement sont multiples. Pour expliquer la localisation des colons, une majorité de ruralistes accorde la prépondérance aux propriétés du sol. Bien qu'elle soit considérée déterminante par plusieurs, l'attirance ethnique ne se voit pas attribuer une importance équivalente. Afin d'évaluer le rôle respectifde ces deux facteurs, nous avons reconstitué l'occupation initiale du sol dans le canton de Godmanchester (Québec). Pour y parvenir, nous avons consulté l'historiographie locale et dépouillé les recensements nominatifs de 1825, 1831 et 1842. Nos résultats indiquent que les deux variables examinées exercent une influence sur l'orientation du peuplement mais que leur attrait respectif ne s'exprime pas nécessairement au même moment. Après avoir été décisifs jusqu'à la fin des années 1820, les dépôts de surface semblent ensuite perdent de leur influence au profit de l'attirance ethnique. Pour comprendre ce patron d'implantation, il importe de reconnaître que les colons sont des producteurs résidentiels plutôt que des agriculteurs commerciaux. Ces derniers recherchent probablement davantage des sites facilitant l'établissement de leur famille que des terres propices à l'agriculture de marché.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.006 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".