This dissertation examines the images and reality of fatherhood, between 1870 and 1914, using a case study of Montreal's middle class, and specifically the English speaking, Protestant community. An examination of reform literature, custody decisions, and fiction suggest that providing for his family's material needs was a father's first duty. Fatherhood was also invested with authority and power. Yet, the sentimental family ideal entrusted the mother with the emotional elements of child-rearing. Many fathers appear to have created nurturing relationships with their children, despite the emotionally restrictive social images, and society's emphasis on the importance of motherhood.

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A linear programming (LP) model is formulated to reflect economic, climatic conditions, and cultural practices followed in the pot flower industry of Quebec. The objective is to determine the optimal crop mix that maximizes net returns and optimizes space usage given production and marketing constraints. Decision variables are composed of nine major pot flower varieties with several pot sizes produced for different marketing periods during the year. Data are collected from producers in the Montreal area in 1990, and is supplemented by interviews with ornamental counsellors and citations of governmental publications. / Results have shown that the use of LP as a design tool can be of benefit to ornamental producers and managers in decision making. Increasing the amount and quality of available information to producers can lead to improved decisions that increase production efficiency and space productivity, and thus lead to a more competitive industry.

Three drainage experiments were conducted on a newly developed organic soil where three cultural methods were superimposed. Measurements of carrot yields, subsidence, water table fluctuations, subsurface drain performance, hydraulic conductivity and soil bulk density were made. Rotovating the soil produced higher carrot yields than plowing or disking during the first year. The seven-year subsidence totalled 515 mm and depended mostly on organic soil depth. Hydraulic conductivity values did not change after five years of drainage. Bulk density of the top 0.20 m increased by 71% in 6 years, whereas the values down the profile increased between 3.3 and 16.2%. / The effect of two water table depths (WTD), 0.6 and 0.9 m, in an organic soil on soil water tension, subsidence swelling and carrot yields was studied in undisturbed cores in the greenhouse. Carrot yields were reduced by the 0.9 m WTD. Subsidence with the 0.9 m WTD was more than double that of the 0.6 m WTD. Raising the water table near the surface caused the soil to swell. / Hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, fiber content and drainable porosity were measured in undisturbed organic soil profiles. Values from all four properties decreased with increasing depth.

Earthworms have an important role in the decomposition of organic matter, mineralization of nutrients and physical mixing of soils. Despite a large number of laboratory and greenhouse-level studies investigating how earthworms modify soil properties and promote soil fertility, we lack reliable methods to scale-up and quantify earthworm contributions to nutrient cycling at the agroecosystem level. The objective of this thesis is to determine the influence of earthworm communities on nitrogen (N) transformations in soils and to quantify their contribution to nitrogen flux through soils for soybean and maize cropping systems of Quebec. Laboratory growth rates were used to predict how earthworm growth responded to seasonal fluctuations in soil temperature and moisture. The relationships between earthworm populations, soil-N pools and annual crop production were evaluated in a field experiment. When favourable conditions occurred in 2004 (temperatures <20°C, and rainfall at least once a week), a positive relationship was found between earthworm numbers and the plant available-N, including soil mineral-N, microbial biomass-N and total-N removed in soybean grain. In 2005, soil conditions were unfavourable (temperatures > 20°C and little or no rainfall) to earthworm survival and growth, and no relationship was found between earthworm populations, soil N pools and corn production. These data permitted me to make assumptions about earthworm activity and life histories under field conditions, which were used to estimate N flux through earthworm communities with two models. The models were tested for their sensitivity to varying parameter values within the range reported in the scientific literature. During a crop growing period with favourable climate conditions, a large earthworm population (100 g fresh weight biomass m-2 or greater) is predicted to cycle as much as 120 kg N ha-1. Model predictions were very sensitive to input parameters and did not correspond to the partial N budget calculated at the site. Accurate predictions of N mineralization by earthworms require more species- and site-specific parameter values. Further investigation using stable 15N isotopes as tracers would help us to follow the N transformations and evaluate the N flux mediated by earthworms at the field scale.