412 BOARD OF AGEICULTDKE. 



Under the present law any number of drains may be constructed on 

 one water course and each drain having a separate and distinct allotment, 

 when the whole drain could have and should have been constructed under 

 one process of law and under one allotment. 



Everything should have a system. There is no use of trying to carry 

 off an 8-inch flow of water with a 4-inch tile, and yet I have had more 

 than one man come into my office and complain, and offer proof of this 

 very kind of drain. In the city of Indianapolis they have a civil engineer, 

 and if you want to construct a tile drain or a sewer this city civil engi- 

 neer, with his expert knowledge and skill, lays out your work and you 

 follow his plans. Why not have just as systematic drainage in the coun- 

 try? An expert county surveyor or drainage commission ought to have 

 power to control and regulate all our drains and make plans and specifica- 

 tions of all that are constructed, whether public or private. The first 

 question asked is, "Should a drain be constructed?" and in solving this 

 question who ought to be the judge? It should be some man who knows. 



Our average viewers are not men of ability and learning in these 

 particular matters, but our county commissioner, mindful of a half dozen 

 votes that some faithful politician gave him toward his election, tries to 

 pay the debt and square accounts by appointing his political friend as 

 viewer. And, under the law, it must be a man not near the location of the 

 drain and, consequently, as ignorant of the lay of the land as possible. 

 Let us start right. If no drain is needful from a scientific investigation, 

 made by a competent civil engineer, then don't construct it. 



The less machinery, the better the machine. On the question of 

 damages or benefits, let three good, competent farmers be selected to 

 assess them. 



There is too much carelessness and considerable incompetency in the 

 construction of drains. 



The size of tile, depth of ditch, its fall and particular location are 

 important matters that should receive attention from competent, careful 

 men. No man wants to pay for something he doesn't get, and the con- 

 struction of drains, good or bad, costs money. 



I have heard of very peculiar cases where men were assessed for 

 constructing drains. 



One story is told (1 do not vouch for its being true) where a man was 

 assessed more than any of his neighbors, and when he went to the viewers 

 and made his kick and demanded to know why he Avas assessed so high, 

 he was told that it was because he had such a large family.' Another man 

 was assessed high because he raised a considerable quantity of onions 

 each year, and the viewers thought the ditch would carry off the smell 

 and thereby better protect the public health. 



Ditches do protect the public health, as well as improve the land, and 

 right here let me say that this question of all our cities draining the filth 

 of fifty, seventy-five or one hundred thousand people into our streams is 



