Like the French of Europe, their unit of value was the livre, nearly equivalent to the modern franc.

They were not very industrious, nor very thrifty husbandmen.

Their farming implements were rude, their methods of cultivation simple and primitive, and they themselves were often lazy and improvident.

Near their town they had great orchards of gnarled apple-trees, planted by their forefathers when they came from France, and old pear-trees, of a kind unknown to the Americans; but their fields often lay untilled, while the owners lolled in the sunshine smoking their pipes.

In consequence they were sometimes brought to sore distress for food, being obliged to pluck their corn while it was still green.[22] The pursuits of the fur trader and fur trapper were far more congenial to them, and it was upon these that they chiefly depended.