ghborhood might incline to settle
there; and in time the settlement could be made so attractive--as
compared with the outlying farmhouses--as to lead to the concentration
of the whole population.

This part of the subject is, however, foreign to the present purpose. If
the _desirability_ of village life for farmers can be established, the
ways and means may safely be left to those interested in securing it.
The influences now at work to make the farmers' children seek a better
social condition, together with the necessity which confines them to
some form of agricultural work, must be depended on to secure the relief
suggested, unless some better relief can be found.

In this case, as in every other of village construction, the original
plan should include some quality or feature, which, while appropriate to
the modest end in view, will give character to the place.

Every village has in its situation, its uses, or its origin, some
characteristic which may be developed into a leading and an attractive
feature. Especially when the work is to be begun from the foundation,
and when there are no buildings to be torn down or removed, a consistent
and dignified result may be planned for at the outset.

The characteristic feature of the village we are now considering is that
it is to consist of a single long, straight street cut off at each end
by other roads. After removing one unimportant house, there remains no
obstacle to the laying-out of one straight street two hundred feet wide,
with either two or four rows of spreading elms. This street, two
thousand feet long, mainly in well-kept grass, with only the necessary
width of road and the requisite paths,--having perhaps a well-kept and
home-like private place opposite each of its ends,--would stamp the
village at once with an attraction which would have a constant
civilizing effect on those living under its influence.

Such a village street, entirely without costly ornamentation, and
requiring only the simplest care, would soon take on a look of
appropriate neatness and freshness; and, as the trees grew, it would
acquire a dignity and beauty which could in no other way be so well
secured.

The church and the schoolhouse, being placed in broad recesses opposite
the central point of the street, would gain importance from their
position; and, these main features being attended to, the _character_ of
the village would be fixed, and it would be difficult to make any
arrange