The land along Dauphin River was marshy at many places.  When the great tides of the Bay of Fundy came in, it would submerge much of the area along the river.  Some of the settlers evidentally were experienced in this type of situation.  Several areas in Europe, first in the Netherlands and then in France, were in the same situation.  Reclaiming tidal lands had occurred under Louis XIII (1610-1643) at La Rochelle and Saintonge, with Dutch engineers showing them how. [Clark, p. 103] 
     The average farm eventually contained 5 to 10 arpents of reclaimed salt marsh.   By the time they were exiled, they had reclaimed over 13,000 acres of salt marsh, while clearing only 500 acres of wooded land.  (The Founding of New Acadia, Brasseaux, p. 125-6) 

     It appears that the first efforts at dyking the fields occurred about 1636.  The earliest (pre 1632) settlers were more interested in the quick money of trading and fishing.  It seems that the leaders of Acadia actually started out bringing people to dyke the marshes to get salt to preserve the fish.  The use of the land for farming soon overcame it's use for salt production.  
     Razilly's group, from 1632 to 1635, was at La Have ... which didn't have the salt marshes. One of the reasons d'Aulnay moved to Port Royal after Razilly's death was because of its alluvial soil.  Once a field had been dyked, the land was left for about two to three years to allow the salt to leach out.  Then the land was ready to be planted.  This required much less work than clearing forests. D’Aulnay gave the settlers their own piece of land to farm at Port Royal.  He also had two areas for himself that were worked by engages.  He may have rebuilt Poutrincourt’s old mill on the Allain River. 
     Seeds were obtained from France.  Fruit trees were also grown, apple being the most common.  By the mid 1650s, many of the settlers were harvesting crops on reclaimed marshland. 
 

EARLY ACADIA by Claude Picard

Flax was grown (often by women) to make linen.  They scutched the flax near a stream.  The men made looms and spinning wheels for them.   [Clark, p. 452]     The main crops were grains, such as wheat, barley, oats, and rye.  Since plows were rarely found until the 1700s, the furrows were usually shallow ... 2-3 inches deep.  Seed was planted by broadcasting.       Besides the larger crops, a smaller family garden was usually found.  Vegetables for the household were grown here.  Common examples were turnips, field peas, and cabbages.

     As it came time for Acadians to settle other areas (due to crowding, freedom from governmental control, etc.), they tended to find other areas with salt marshes.  It may not be surprising to find that both the Minas Basin area and the Beaubassin area were rich in salt marshes.  So the location of these marshes were the major factor in Acadian settlement locations.