RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 53 



veyor's duties having been too limited, and to the rectangular system 

 as a plan for land settlement. The surveyor should not only measure 

 the land, but make a survey of its conditions in the real sense; and 

 the rectangular survey should not be the plan for settlement, but only 

 provide the basis on which a proper development plan for each township 

 should be prepared. 



Objections have occasionally been made to the system of rec- 

 tangular survey by those who have noted its defects as a plan of land 

 development; but as it is not a plan of land development at all, and 

 as its geometrical and rigid character make it unsuitable for such a 

 plan, the survey should not be objected to on that ground. The 

 objection should be to the facts that a survey designed for one pur- 

 pose is used as a plan for another purpose, that it is so used without 

 regard being paid to the soil, topography and future development, 

 and that farms are divided and roads located without any properly 

 conceived development scheme being prepared for the areas in which 



they are situated. 



Radial Plans 



As one of the main objects of a proper land development scheme 

 must be to group the population and design the location of the roads 

 so as to secure the greatest efficiency in production, facilities for co- 

 operation, etc., it follows that, other things being equal, a radial 

 system of laying out roads — in which the roads would converge in a 

 direct line to a common centre in each township or larger area — would 

 best serve these objects. But there are serious objections to the radial 

 ] Ian when prepared in geometrical form and without regard to the 

 shape of the farms, which in most radial plans have to be triangular 

 in shape. Farmers prefer to have square farms and square fields 

 and to that extent they are firm believers in the square plan. They 

 have to be persuaded that any departure from the square plan is for 

 a good reason. While not usually opposed to oblong farms designed 

 to give them access to rivers or to give them fewer and better roads, 

 they object to the sharp corners of triangular fields. As a general 

 rule triangular shaped fields should be avoided, but in a properly con- 

 ceived design, which included radial lines for the principal highways, 

 very few triangular fields need be included. 



It is unfortunate that farmers seem to imagine that the reser- 

 vation of useless road spaces along the boundaries of their farms is 

 of more advantage than securing good roads in the best positions 

 and affording the most direct access to the railway or village. If a 

 practical experiment could be carried out on a sufficiently large scale, 



