RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 59 



through the care of which the children would not only learn 

 about plants and cultivation, but they would cultivate 

 an interest in their parents' chief concern. 



The planting of trees along all the roads is very desir- 

 able, for shade in summer, a windbreak in winter, and at all 

 seasons for the beauty of the landscape. In places not purely 

 rural, where villages might grow up and where small shops 

 or manufacturing plants might be located, a further de- 

 velopment of the centre would include the planning of these 

 industrial sites, and possibly a group of houses for the opera- 

 tives, on the lines of the English garden cities. 



The necessity of thus providing the setting must be grasped 

 by someone of sufficient vision to read the signs of the times 

 and appreciate the needs of rural life. 



Such a scheme is about to be carried out not far from Win- 

 nipeg. (Figure 12.) The Greater Winnipeg Water District is plan- 

 ning a settlement at Mile 79, which will fulfil, as far as the con- 

 ditions permit, most of the requirements suggested above, 

 and a group of homesteaders are now waiting for the whistle 

 to blow in order to enter upon this promised land. 



The Dominion Government gives the land and consents 

 to a certain deviation from the section lines for the roads. 

 The Provincial Government is to make the physical improve- 

 ments — roads, drainage, etc. The Colonization Department 

 will help in the settling of the men, and will render aid in vari- 

 ous ways in starting them in the development of the land, 

 while the Agricultural Department will give them advice as 

 to the best use of the land and instruction in various horti- 

 cultural processes and methods. 



Practicability of Community Settlements 



These isolated schemes are interesting and helpful in their sug- 

 gestiveness. Theoretically, a great many of the ideas put forward are 

 sound and are based on a right understanding of the root causes of 

 present difficulties. But every system of planning land has its de- 

 fects, and some which seem to be right in theory do not work out 

 satisfactorily in practice. There is no system which can be put for- 

 ward as suitable for general application. Moreover, it will probably 

 be found that the "promised land" of the communal schemes will 

 not materialize to anything like the extent anticipated. Difficulties 

 of fitting in the new methods with the old will crop up; prejudiced 

 officialdom will be encountered; individual self-seeking will lead to 

 friction in the co-operative enterprises; some part of the machinery 

 will fail. There is also the danger that in trying new methods the 

 promoters may be too fanciful. They will start schemes that will 

 cost too much, and therefore be condemned at their inception before 



