RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 257 



what was then the Northwest Territories, into which the boundaries 

 of Manitoba have also extended. The three provinces of Manitoba, 

 Saskatchewan and Alberta may be generally regarded as containing 

 the lands best suited for settlement in the Northwest, but the two 

 hundred million acres already surveyed represents less than half their 

 combined area. 



In 1871 the first Manual of Instructions for the Survey of Dominion 

 Lands was issued, and it is very evident, from a study of this and sub- 

 sequent manuals, that whatever criticism might be made of the 

 system adopted, the endeavour to carry it out in a systematic and 

 scientific manner can not be too highly praised, especially in view of 

 the methods in vogue in the other provinces of Canada and in the 

 United States, from which country the system used in the West was 

 copied. 



Charles Mulford Robinson, in his City Planning, may be quoted 



as follows: 



"In 1785, on the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson, Congress 

 passed a land ordinance which resulted in placing a huge checker- 

 board of survey lines over all the miles of country north and west 

 of the Ohio river, a checkerboard that was regardless of contours 

 and relentless as fate," and, in connection with such rectangular 

 planning, "law and custom have entrenched a plan which by its 

 own simplicity invited adoption." The ordinance referred to provid- 

 ed for townships 6 miles square, containing 36 sections of one mile 

 square. This system appealed to those in charge of such matters 

 as an admirable one to copy for the great level plains of the Canadian 

 Northwest. 



"If the country had been all wooded it is questionable if such a 

 system would have been introduced," says Dr. O. J. Klotz, D.Sc, 

 F.R.S.C., of the Dominion Observatory, who, in the early days, went 

 to Washington in connection with the system of survey to be adopted. 

 The idea of a six-mile rectangular township, with sides lying north 

 and south and east and west, and the words section, township and 

 range, were, it is true, copied from the United States. But from 

 a scientific and mathematical standpoint the system might also be con- 

 sidered a new one. For example, it is understood that the Surveyor 

 General of each state might designate townships by numbers that 

 represented the order in which they were surveyed, rather than being 

 indicative of the locality in which the townships were situated. 



For the system that was to operate in Western Canada, however, 

 the advantage of continuity was early and clearly seen. The result 

 is that now each township has an established geographic position, 

 subject, of course, to certain possible inaccuracies in surveying. Given 

 the latitude and longitude of any spot, the section, township and 

 range can be mathematically determined. Such a system was made 

 possible by Lindsay Russell, who, though not Surveyor General at 

 the time, was a remarkable mathematician and scientist. This high 

 tribute is paid by Dr. O. J. Klotz, who gives Mr. Russell further credit 

 for his ability to recognize these qualities in another man, whom he 

 brought into the services of the Dominion Government, and who, 



