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HO^IE ASD FLO WEBS 



large cominimitY; always have the oppor- 

 tunity of enjoying the tranquility and 

 pleasures of the country. That such pleas- 

 ures have not ceased to attract the Eng- 

 lish workinguian is shown by the interest 

 he takes in his garden, however small, 

 and the diligence with which he cultivates 

 his allotment, in the rare cases where he 

 is fortunate enough to secure one. I once 

 read a letter from a workingman in a gar- 

 dening paper to the following etfect: 

 '•'Dear Sir — I have just taken a house, for 

 the tirst tiuie with a garden. My garden 

 is ten feet long by three feet wide. It 

 faces due north, and gets very little sun. 

 AVill you advise me what flowers and 

 plants I can best grow in it The letter 

 struck me as pathetic. 



Mr. Howard has described in detail the 

 Garden City of the future as he hopes to 

 see it. It is to be a city containing about 

 30,000 inhabitants, located upon an es- 

 tate of 6,000 acres. The area devoted to 

 building is to be 1,000 acres, laid out in 

 concentric circles round a central park. 

 The shops are to surround the park, and 

 to open upon wide colonnades or winter 

 gardens, roofed over, so as to enable busi- 

 ness to be conducted with as little incon- 

 venience from the weather as possible (a 

 matter of considerable importance in a 

 climate as wet and variable as that of 

 England), and to afford an attractive 

 promenade at all times of the year. Be- 

 hind the shops would circle successive 

 lines of building plots for residential pur- 

 poses, divided by wide roads and gardens, 

 while the last building circle would be 

 devoted to the factories giving employ- 

 ment to the population. Encircling these 

 again and communicating by sidings with 

 the works on the one hand, and the trunk 

 line on the other, would run a circular 

 railwa}^ carrying the goods for import and 

 export. Radiating from the central park 

 would be six magnificent avenues extend- 

 ing to the outer circle, and affording 

 direct means of access to all parts of the 

 city. Beyond the encircling railway 

 would be the 5,000 acres of agricultural 



land, never to be invaded bv bricks and 

 mortar, except for such municipal pur- 

 poses as hospitals, sanitariums, and the 

 like. It will be oliscrved that whon the 

 sites allotted for building are taken up, 

 the size of the city will be definitely fixed, 

 no further expansion can tal^e place within 

 the estate, but the overfiow must establish 

 itself in a second Garden City in close 

 connection with the first, ]\Ir. Howard 

 shows how. by the exercise of forethought 

 in their laying out. a group of such cities 

 can be formed with such facilities of inter- 

 communication as to form but one com- 

 munity for the essential purposes of soeial 

 intercourse, recreation, and amusement. 

 The 5,000 acres left unbuilt upon will 

 themselves become of far greater value, 

 and will afford employment to many more 

 hands, than before, in consequence of the 

 proximity of a new market. The flowers, 

 fruit, vegetables, milk, butter, eggs, and 

 poultry, and so forth, required by the com- 

 munity, may be raised by its own tenants, 

 on its own estate, and though such an es- 

 tate would not be entirely self-supporting 

 in regard to food supply, at all events the 

 farmers would be encouraged to produce 

 all that the land was capable of producing. 

 At present, within fifty miles of London 

 in some seasons, fruit rots on the ground, 

 because the cost of transit has rendered 

 it not worth the picking, while millions 

 of pounds annually go to France. Den- 

 mark, Italy, and other parts of the con- 

 tinent for the very articles of consumption 

 that in a Garden City would be raised 

 at the doors of its inhabitants. We hear 

 of the over-population of England, but if 

 such a scheme were carried out the south- 

 ern counties alone would swallow up the 

 population of London four times over, 

 in addition to the population already upon 

 the land. 



The Garden City Association has been 

 formed to carry out the idea. To do so in 

 its entirety we cannot hope, but by found- 

 ing one Garden City we hope to set before 

 the country an object-lesson which will 

 instruct the dullest. 



