attention to the practicability of establishing
town or community forests on cheap land unsuitable for tillage, as a
source of income to the community. Communal forests have existed in
Europe for many centuries, and at the present time form 22 percent of
the forests in France. A movement has now commenced for the planting of
town forests in this country,[91] and the better utilization of the
community's waste land by planting it in timber should be considered a
feature of community planning.

The improvements effected in cities through city planning commissions,
both with regard to street location for the better routing of traffic,
and the laying out of parks and the location of public buildings, have
been so apparent, that the idea has been taken up by rural communities
and a few states have passed legislation for the creation of special
agencies for rural community planning. Thus Massachusetts has for
several years had a Town Planning Commission and in 1919 Wisconsin
passed an act[92] creating a division on rural planning of the State
Department of Agriculture, and creating rural planning committees in
each county. In 1920 thirty-six counties had organized such committees
under this law and had already accomplished much under its
authority.[93] Some of the more progressive land companies which are
colonizing new lands in northern Wisconsin are making definite community
plans to encourage settlement,[94] and in California the State Land
Settlement Board has done much to encourage better rural planning by the
demonstrations which it has made in its farm colonies at Durham and
Delhi.[95] The Extension Services of several of the State agricultural
colleges have experts on landscape art who give assistance in the
improvement of public grounds and in community planning.

A system of numbering farms has recently been invented which is based
upon the relations of farms to their community centers and which
therefore makes necessary the definite location of rural community areas
and their boundaries. This is known as the "Clock System" rural index
and is now in use in four counties in New York State. The county map
published in the directory shows the different communities outlined by
heavily shaded lines and the farm numbers radiate from the community
centers. On the map each community is divided as a spider's web into a
number of small spaces by twelve dotted lines that extend from each
village on the same radii as the hour