ABSTRACT
There are many parts of the world in which a dense peasant population following a largely self-sufficient way of life has come into existence—the riverine lands of the lower Yangtze or Indus. This chapter deals with the relatively simple but neglected problem of the location of lines of communication with respect to rural and urban needs or potential needs. In practice, although the greater part of a communications system usually lies in rural areas, the basic layout of the network is generally more influenced by urban and industrial needs than by rural and agricultural requirements. The north-east of Nigeria is an under-developed region, largely on account of the poor transport facilities, and the survey was conducted to determine which route through the territory would be the most profitable. There are three kinds of scale economy in operating a farm which are particularly important: in buying farm requisites, in selling the produce and in managing the farm.
