Seventy-Third Annual Report 1187 



7. The private and institution drainage expert or adviser should 

 be encouraged. 



Voice : What recourse would I have if my neighbor dumps 

 water on my land ? 



Prof. Fippin : If he dumps water on your land unfairly, that 

 is, if it is not a natural course and if you can show damage, then 

 you have a ease for collection of damage. 



Voice : It is natural drainage — so arranged that it makes a 

 bad cut across one of my best fields. 



Prof. Fippin : If he has the natural fall and is simply modi- 

 fying the flow within the natural drainage basin, then you have 

 no recourse because you have to take care of that water. 



Mr. Winters : There are a number of farmers here who are 

 deeply interested in this subject and it seems to me it would be 

 beneficial if we could hear from some of them at this time along 

 practical lines. 



Mr, DeFreest : In Voorheesville, we have a large territory 

 through which the famous Black Creek winds. This creek often 

 overflows and floods the land. I suppose that it naturally belongs 

 to the state and I have asked heretofore what can be done to clean 

 it out. Xo one knows. I cannot clean out six or eight miles of 

 somebody else's creek to get drainage for my land, and my neigh- 

 bor cannot. Where I mowed with a mowing machine six or eight 

 years ago, a cow cannot walk now. The creek has filled in and it 

 backs up ; it has destroyed about twenty acres of my land. I 

 should like to know some way to get redress. Wc are paying taxes 

 and I should like to have my land so I could drain it. I am 

 willing to do it for myself but I cannot do it for others. 



The President : I believe we have with us some representa- 

 tives of the Conservation Commission, those who are closely in 

 touch with inland waters. It looks to me as though this was an 

 inland water and perhaps if Mr. Moore is here he can answer 

 that question. 



John D. Moore, Conservation Commissioner: This subject 

 of drainage is one which has received, and deservedly so, the care- 

 ful consideration of the engineering staff of the Commission. But 

 the discouraging feature of that portion of the work has been the 

 almost complete lack of response on the part of that portion of the 



