RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 175 



from the nursery station of the Department of the Interior at Indian 

 Head to establish 31,000 plantations on the prairies, and another 

 five million will be given this spring. That the farmers appreciate 

 this work is shown by the fact that up to this year it has been ex- 

 tremely difficult to keep up with the demand. Trees cool the air in 

 summer and provide shelter in winter; they add to the value of pro- 

 perty and purify the atmosphere in towns. 



There are other directions in which the improvement of social 

 life in the village and rural districts is urgently needed. One is in 

 making the surroundings of the schools more pleasant and in provid- 

 ing ample and well furnished recreation places for the children. In 

 New Westminster, British Columbia, good work is being done to make 

 school surroundings attractive and interesting. Progress is also being 

 made in different parts of the country in the organization of boys' 

 and girls' clubs, school gardening, etc. Perhaps to achieve real success 

 in these directions in rural areas, schools will have to be consolidated 

 to a large extent, but a great deal can be accomplished by planning 

 the land in such a way as to improve the means of communication 

 between the farms and the schools. 



The development of more village centres in the country would also 

 enable provision to be made for the establishment of picture houses as 

 a means of entertainment and public education. Some kind of co- 

 operative organization is necessary for this purpose as, under present 

 conditions, picture houses cannot be made to pay even in towns of two 

 or three thousand inhabitants isolated from large centres. The absence 

 of more accessible medical aid for the women and children of the coun- 

 try districts, and of many other advantages which the town possesses 

 as compared with the rural districts, are the result of the present scat- 

 tered and unsatisfactory method of development. The need for 

 these advantages will continue and will have to be dealt with by 

 organization, no matter how we plan. But, for the most part, the 

 organization of rural life and rural industry must begin with the lay- 

 ing of a proper foundation by those who have the power to plan and 

 develop the land. If once this foundation is properly laid, and the 

 rural population have the facilities provided to enable them to organize 

 and develop their social life, they will do so as successfully as is done 

 in any other country. The opportunities must be provided and the 

 conditions of settlement properly organized under government lead- 

 ership, after which the more that is left to the people to do for 

 themselves, the better it will be for the country. This statement is 

 of course subject to the qualification that government initiative 



