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In this ethnographic inquiry, I examine the way in which literacy creates personal meaning in the lives of ten Hassidic women in Quebec, Canada. Using an integrative qualitative methodology, I draw from Goldberger, Tarule, Belenky and Clinchy (1996), theories of feminist notions of knowledge, current epistemological discussions about difference, power, multiculturalism, and the expression or suppression of voice. From Street's (1994) ideological model of literacy and from Barton (1994), Hamilton (1998), and Maybin (2000), I more clearly conceptualize the pivotal role of literacy practices in articulating links between individual people's everyday experience and wider social institutions and structures. Marilyn-Martin Jones and Katherine Jones (2000) provide a further theoretical lens for viewing the plurality of literacies associated with the values, understandings and intentions that people have about what they and others do. / The findings led me to four conclusions. First, in the private realm of her home the Hassidic woman commands and receives a great deal of authority and respect. Second, it is the Hassidic woman who is the final arbiter of her own information needs and her literacies encompass a diversity of purposes, materials and competencies. The third finding is that the Hassidic woman is able to successfully negotiate the various arenas of her life without compromising tradition and religious law. Finally, although many of these women in their roles as homemaker and wives, experience financial, emotional and physical hardships while raising large families, I have observed in them infinite amounts of patience, good will, serenity and love.

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The performance of a subsurface irrigation system in a clay soil was investigated under field conditions from 1989 to 1991. It was found that subsurface irrigation could be practised successfully in some clay soils of Quebec. The 10 m drain spacing was found to be better than the 20 m drain spacing in terms of keeping a uniform water table between the drains. The water table distribution between the drains was found to be a factor of the applied hydraulic head. The relationship between the applied hydraulic head and the midspan water table elevation could not be determined due to unfavourable weather conditions during the study period. The soil moisture content was found to follow the same behavior as the water table elevation, however, the relationship between these two parameters could not be properly established. It was also found that under the same applied hydraulic head, the drain spacing did not affect the soil moisture distribution. Subsurface irrigated plots were found to make better use of rain water than drained only plots since they did not permit the formation of well-defined pathways (macropores) allowing rainfall to move below the root zone without wetting it. It was also found that subsurface irrigation did not alter the soil structure appreciably and that autumn drainability was not affected in 1990 and 1991.

The higher Diptera (Brachycera) fauna of sedge meadows (Cyperaceae, Carex) was studied at the Lac St. Francois National Wildlife Area in southern Quebec. Flies were collected weekly from May to October 1999 using sweeping and pan traps at three sampling sites representing two types of Carex habitat. Over 10,000 specimens, representing 34 families and more than 300 species, were collected. Dolichopodidae, Chloropidae, Sciomyzidae, Syrphidae and Sphaeroceridae were highest in species richness in all sites, and Ephydridae were very high in two of the sites. The above families, along with Phoridae, Chamaemyiidae and Muscidae, were also the most abundant. Overall species composition differed between sites and is apparently influenced by the type of vegetation and substrate. Correspondence analysis was used to investigate the habitat preferences of the 37 most abundant species. The feeding habits and host plants of many Diptera species were newly established by rearing adults from plants infested by larvae.

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The urbanization of the French Canadian parish, which took root in rural Quebec, can best be understood by realizing what the parish was like at the time when it became the social unit of French Canada and then tracing it through the various phases which it has taken in response to its environment There are many different types of parishes—ranging from the inclusive primary group in remote rural surroundings to the highly urbanized parish in a city like Montreal. What was the nature of the early social life in French Canada, where the dominant form of social grouping was to be the parish? Much has been written of the early French seigneurs-- the noblemen who came to the wilderness that was Canada, and who established their large estates, or seigneuries. But it is significant that this so-called superior class contributed little to the actual colonization of Canada, and left no lasting institution.[...]

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