66 City Homes on Country Lanes 



The practical explanation is, of course, that such 

 lands have become too valuable for farming because 

 of their proximity to large population, and are held 

 out of use in anticipation of urban expansion. The 

 more their value diminishes for the one purpose, the 

 more it increases for the other. That there is an inter- 

 mediate use which in its practical outworking restores 

 their productive capacity, while still reserving them 

 for the possible future needs of city extension, is a 

 truth that has escaped the sharp-eyed real-estate fra- 

 ternity in most localities, though not in all, as we 

 shall presently see. As a means of reducing the matter 

 to the concrete, let us consider the situation at the 

 National Capital, our beautiful Washington. 



Within a ten-mile circle drawn around the Capitol 

 Dome are thousands of acres of good agricultural 

 land, of which the merest fraction has been reduced 

 to intensive cultivation. Much of it is wastefully used; 

 much of it is not used at all. Conditions of soil, 

 climate and water-supply are good, and represent a 

 fair average for the United States. Suburban trans- 

 portation is a serious problem in some localities, and 

 less so in others, but is being rapidly simplified by 

 the extension of good roads and the increasing use 

 of motor vehicles, both bus and truck. 



In his annual report to the President, dated No- 

 vember 21, 1919, Secretary Lane called attention to 

 this situation, and said : 



"Somewhere and sometime, it seems to me, a new 

 .system must be devised to disperse the people of great 

 cities on the vacant lands surrounding them, to give 

 the masses a real hold upon the soil, and to replace 



