h his fertile fields. This method has been adopted
throughout the whole country; and the peculiarly American system of
isolated farm-life has become almost universal throughout the length and
breadth of the land.

I am not so enthusiastic as to believe that a radical change from this
universal system is to be hoped for at any early day; but I believe that
it is worth while for farmers to consider how far they may, without
permanent harm to the interests for which they are working, secure for
themselves, and especially for their families, the benefits of village
life.

To this end are adduced the following examples, both of which are of
course purely imaginary. The first has reference to a new settlement of
wild land, where, by the Government's system of division, the boundaries
are rectangular, and where the political subdivisions are of uniform
measurement. The second relates to the necessary change of conditions
now existing in the longer-settled parts of the country.

For this latter, the illustration is taken from an actual accurate
survey[1] of a purely agricultural district in Rhode Island, showing the
roads, houses, and field boundaries as they now exist, followed by a
suggestion as to the manner in which the same division of estates might
be made to conform to the assembling of their owners into a village.

[Footnote 1: A map of the United States Coast Survey.]

The Government division is into townships six miles square. It is
proposed to divide each township into nine settlements, giving to each a
square of two miles, or 2,560 acres. Each of these settlements should
have its whole population concentrated in a village at its centre. A
suitable method of division would be that indicated in Figure 11, where
a public road crosses the middle of the tract north and south, and east
and west. The outside of the tract, for the width of half a mile all
around, is laid off in farms of 80 acres and 160 acres. These are
bounded on the inner sides by a road. Inside of this road again is a
series of smaller farms (40 acres), and inside of these a tier of still
smaller places (10 acres), separated from the central village by a
narrow road. The village itself occupies 40 acres.

The division of the agricultural land is as follows:--

4 farms of 160 acres 640
16 " 80 " 1,280
12 " 40 " 480
12 " 10 " 120

in all, 44 tracts, aggregating 2,520 acres, and averag