450 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



<;opy has been furnished each member of the audience. The principal 

 feature of these notes is the tables of number of acres drained by dif- 

 ferent sizes of tiles and ditches, laid to different grades. These tables 

 have been computed to meet in general the recommendations of Mr. C. 

 G. Elliott, drainage expert of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, as given in his book, ''Engineering for Land Drainage." Mr. 

 Elliott is well known to us as an expert along these lines, and is 

 to address you this evening. In computing ditch tables, however, the 

 writer adopted Kutter's formula for the capacity of ditches, as much 

 more reliable than the one recommended by Mr. Elliott (though not so 

 simple), and the writer further assumed, as agreeing with working con- 

 ditions in Iowa, that the ditches will be in only moderately good condi- 

 tion, containing occasional stones and weeds, or corresponding obstruc- 

 tions to flow. For ditches in thoroughly first-class condition 25 per cent 

 can be added to the number of acres given in the table, and the resjults 

 will even , then be quite a little smaller than would be obtained by Mr, 

 Elliott's formula. 



Mr. C. G. Elliott, Drainage Expert of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, Washington. D. C, addressed the convention on 



"draixage laws of other states.*' 



A most important point in drainage is connected with the enactment 

 •of proper drainage laws. The early drainage laws of other states 

 iiave in all cases grown out of the necessities of those states, es'pecially 

 in the older states where thej' have been a mere skeleton, to which ad- 

 -ditions have been made as agricultural needs have indicated. I might 

 say, in pasising. that these laws are peculiar in one respect, and that is, 

 the lack of technicalities, the desire for simplicity, so they may be easily 

 understood. In almost all cases they are furnished with the declaration 

 that the law is to be construed liberally. I hardly know how to present 

 this matter in a sufficiently clear and complete form when we have so 

 many excellent drainage laws. I can merely allude to sbme of the 

 salient points and show some of the differences which exist in the dif- 

 ferent laws that may be of use to those who have charge of the enacr- 

 ment of amendments for the drainage laws of Iowa. In Illinois the 

 drainage laws have been declared unconstitutional. In 1865 a decision 

 was rendered by the courts that n'o man had the right to drain his own 

 land on his premises provided his neighbor below set up the claim that 

 it in any way injured him, and proved it. At that time the whole drain- 

 age problem, the whole drainage work in the State of Illinois, was 

 blocked by what was known as common law. The matter became almost 

 intolerable, the deviation of water from natural channels was enjoined, 

 just the conditions which the people of this State are in today with ref- 

 erence to the drainage problem. 



(Here Mr. Elliott read a clause of the Illinois law, showing that the 

 matter had become of great importance at that time.) 



Defining right of individual drainage Mr. Elliott stated it was not 

 found in any other drainage laws except the State of Massachusetts. 



