ECONOMIC TREATMENT OF LAND. 101 



but also how it will be treated in detail, as occasion may serve ; and 

 that such plan shall be, as it were, a prevailing contract, whereon 

 the working out of each part is based. Upon the excellence of 

 such a plan, and the forethoughtful experience with which it is 

 produced, depends the success of the purpose in view. The money 

 value of an estate may be frequently more than doubled or trebled 

 by such treatment in the course of a term of not many years. 



When laying out landed property in the vicinity of towns, for 

 building purposes, there are certain conditions that must rule and 

 have attention : (a), Drainage and water supply ; (b), approach ; 

 (c), roads ; (d], proportionate allotment ; (e), return for money 

 invested ; (f), common rules ; (g], general improvement ; (K), com- 

 pliance with local regulations. 



To treat these in order : (a). The question of drainage must 

 necessarily be determined by the site, and its propinquity to an 

 existing drainage system. In the last-named case the connection 

 is simple, provided care be taken in laying out the roads and the 

 sites for the adjacent houses, that the levels are rightly maintained. 

 If no such system exists, the drainage may be made by conducting 

 pipes to a separate sewage farm ; by dealing with the refuse matter, 

 and conducting the overflow into a watercourse ; or, as a last resource, 

 by means of distribution on the land, or by cesspools. The supply 

 of water also depends on the means available either from an existing 

 source, from an independent provision, or from wells. Where public 

 water supply, or gas supply, exist, the pipes are severally laid by 

 the authorities supplying the same. 



(3). The approach to any building estate should be made as 

 direct as possible, and every advantage should be taken of existing 

 conditions, such as directing the road into the estate at the foot 

 of a hill, and leading travellers on by an evidently more easy and 

 pleasanter way ; by taking advantage of a turn in the public road 



