500 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



taller and later variety of barley or oats, I would recommend red clover 

 because it is very nutritious when it is properly cured; it takes large quanti- 

 ties of nitrogen directly from the atmosphere, and by plowing under the 

 second crop, it would enrich the soil rapidly with humus. For the third 

 crop I would plant first-class seed corn from the first to the fifth day of May 

 in Black Hawk county, if the condition of the ground would permit it. 



Then a Hallock's weeder or some other similar implement should be used 

 three or four times until the corn is four or five inches high. Afterwards 

 the ground should be stirred often with a cultivator having very small 

 shovels, to the depth of two or three inches, for the purpose of forming a 

 porous mulch to prevent loss of soil water. By adhering closely to frequent 

 shallow culture I have always found that my nursery trees were larger and 

 that my corn made more satisfactory growth and ripened earlier than where 

 other kinds of culture were used. 



DRAINAGE, SEWAGE AND ROADS. 



THE NEW IOWA DRAINAGE LAW. 



Address of Hon. R, M . Wright., of Ft. Dodge., Iowa., Before the Iowa State 

 Drainage Convention, Held at the Iowa State College., Jan. 13-14,1905 . 



Having been a member of the drainage committee of the Thirtieth Gen- 

 eral Assembly, I could not, when I was invited to address j'ou on the sub- 

 ject of the new drainage law, well refuse to do so. In consenting to address 

 you, I can not take up the law systematically and thoroughly, for this would 

 require many hours. The most I can do in this address is to notice a few 

 of those salient features of the law which are likely to require the most dis- 

 cussion and which are the most likely to be taken before the courts for adju- 

 dication. The questions involved in drainage laws go to the very basis of 

 popular government. A well-known law writer expresses the matter thus: 

 "The question whether or not, by reason of organization or otherwise, 

 an aggregation of people can compel an individual, against his will, to bear 

 or share the expense of drainage for the common welfare, reaches to the very 

 foundations of any theory of democratic government. In governments 

 founded on force the question can never become a practical one. But 

 where all men are free and equal, and have established a government under 

 which all have equal lights, by what authority can one man, or any num- 

 ber of men, say to another: We consider the drainage of a section of land 

 necessary, and you must effect it or share in the expense of doing so? The 

 only possible ground for such authority must be his consent, either express 

 or implied. If the consent has not been expressly granted in the Constitu- 

 tion of the State, the questions then are: Is it necessarily included in his 

 agreement to the formation of the government? Or, has he delegated 

 authority to his representatives in the government to express his consent? 



