THE LANDSCAPE GARDENER IN THE COUNTRY. 355 



It may be that a little study of the topography will enable one to ho 

 re-arrann^^e the farm roads as to combine better j^^rades with more 

 g-raceful lines, and so carry on the work with less labor and expense, 

 though the diilerent fields may not Ije so reg'ular in form. We 

 emphasize, with truth, the simplicity and practicability of our 

 system of g^overument surveyiuj*-; still, I think that nothinj:^ stands 

 so much in the way of an adaquate system of g-ood public roads as 

 does this same question of section lines, etc.; and the same at times 

 in reg'ard to the appearance of the farm, for freijuently we find some 

 picturesque knoll or little lake, which owned by one person might 

 be made an object of beauty, divided among several, whose con- 

 flicting interests soon rob it of all attractiveness. We can congratu- 

 late ourselves, however, that the progress of time and the intelligent 

 location of all important roads will after a while remedy a good deal 

 of this. 



The great question how to keep the young people on the farm, 

 instead of rushing to the over crowded cities, where the propor- 

 tion of failure to success is so great, is one of much importance, not 

 only to the families directly interested but to the country at large; 

 and while the agricultural colleges are doing a grand work in bring-- 

 ing the farm life from drudgery up to a scientific profession, I 

 think that in addition to the financial success which is intended to 

 be the result of their teachings there is also an aesthetic side which 

 needs to be considered, that the farm may not only be the location 

 of a successful business but be also a family home, to be looked 

 back to with pleasure and affection, and which it shall be a worthy 

 ambition to keep always in the family; for sneer as we may at 

 "entail" and other questions of inheritance, "the homes of old Eng- 

 land" have alwaj's been the source of much that goes to make up 

 her power and prestige. 



From farm life let us now turn to the village. It is another of the 

 disadvantages of our methods of subdividing land that we have no 

 connecting link between these two, except in rare occasions where 

 the occupants of adjacent farms may group their homes and build- 

 ings around the common points where their lines intersect. The 

 social Frenchman has found a remedy for this evil and in Canada 

 is content to lay out his farm with a narrow frontage and great pro- 

 portional depth so that the highwa}- has the appearance of a con- 

 tinuous village. Another method which, while F^uropean, is being 

 adopted in some of the recent colonies on the Pacific coast, seems to 

 be a happy medium in that each land owner has a home lot of an 

 acre or two in the village, while the farms proper surround this 

 center. The success of this plan will be watched with interest, but 

 would probably involve too many radical changes among those 

 who regard a quarter-section far too small a field for their endeavors 

 to be introduced in this part of the countr}-. 



So we have the conventional village plat to consider, with its 



checker board arrangement, sciuared with the section line or the 



railroad, with twenty-tive foot lots, and often with no apparent rea- 



')n for its location but the arbitrary will of man. On a level prai- 



i ie, doubtless, this checker board plan is as good as could be devised 



