RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 51 



FIXING ROAD RESERVATIONS 



There are two principal methods employed in fixing road reser- 

 vations in connection with the surveys. The method employed in 

 the Dominion surveys for western lands fixes the roads as shown on 

 figure D. in appendix A. without regard to physical or topographical 

 conditions. The other method, which has been used in Quebec and 

 is now the practice in Northern Ontario, is to reserve five per cent of 

 the land for roads, leaving the exact location to be afterwards deter- 

 mined. Neither system permits of the proper planning of the roads, 

 although the latter method is best in allowing discretion to be 

 exercised. But it does not work out satisfactorily in practice, because 

 vested interests are created in the homesteads before the sites of 

 the roads are fixed, and the planning is largely governed by the sel- 

 fishness and idiosyncrasies of individual farmers, or groups of farm- 

 ers, who are only interested in securing the location of roads to suit 

 their own separate requirements. In either case roads are usually 

 made to follow the straight lines of the farm boundaries, hills are 

 ignored, and stretches of muskeg or swamp are crossed where good 

 road foundations and satisfactory drainage cannot be obtained. 



RESERVATION OF LAND ADJOINING LAKES AND WATERCOURSES 



In Ontario and other provinces governments now require that a 

 width of 66 feet of land be reserved round lakes and along the banks 

 of rivers. The effect of this reservation is shown on the division 

 plan illustrated in figure 7. It prevents the encroachment of 

 undesirable erections along the edges of watercourses and provides 

 space for road communication between the farms with water frontage. 

 The principle of reserving these strips of land is a sound one, and in 

 time great public benefit will be derived as a result of its application. 

 But so far as securing protection of the waterfront is concerned little 

 advantage seems to be gained, and inconvenience to owners 

 may be caused by fixing an arbitrary width of 66 feet in all cases. 

 The width reserved should be determined according to the nature 

 and situation of the land. In some cases high rocky cliffs and in 

 others great stretches of swamp surround water areas; such land has 

 no value for private use, and could be retained in public ownership 

 in wide stretches for forest reserves or other purposes. On the other 

 hand the reservation of the strips for road space is frequently of no 

 use owing to the topographical conditions. Even short lengths of 

 road for purely farm purposes cannot be made along steep banks 

 or across swamps. Again when the banks of rivers or lakes consist 

 of hard level land the roads have to wind in and out following every 



