COLLABORATIVE WORK: STEVEN BREAUX & KATHY REED > A. COLLABORATIVE 2010-2011

Aboiteau farming is a labor-intensive farming method in which earthen dykes are constructed to stop high tides from inundating marshland. A wooden sluice or aboiteau (plural aboiteaux) is then built into the dyke, with swinging doors that allow for water to drain from the farmland but slams shut at high tide to prevent salt water from returning to the fields. The English in the American colonies to the south preferred another, more labor-intensive method—forest clearing.