516 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



with a better one, the district should pay the value of the one removed and 

 a fair remuneration for safeguarding the road during the construction of the 

 new one. The claims of some roads for other damages by reason of drain- 

 age ditches crossing or paralleling their tracks are not well taken, especially 

 where ditch grades are light and no serious danger from erosion exists. 



All damage claims allowed become a part of the cost of the proposed 

 work. The board of supervisors are directed to appoint a meeting to hear 

 complaints concerning awards made by the appraisers, and may increase or 

 diminish the amounts allowed. There is no good reason why any claimant 

 should appeal to the district court if both appraisers and board of super- 

 visors have regarded correct principles and exercised good judgment in their 

 work. No court is as well qualified to adjust differences in these matters as 

 the two boards who have considered the claims in detail. 



It should be noted that thus far the work of organization has consisted of 

 determining upon a plan and obtaining an estimate of the cost of its execu- 

 tion. If in the judgment of the board the estimated cost of the work as now 

 ascertained will not be a greater burden than the land benefited should 

 bear, they shall locate and establish the ditch. 



ASSESSMENT OF BENEFITS. 



The next step pertaining to the financial part of the project is to appor- 

 tion the estimated cost of the work to the property afifected according to the 

 benefits which it will derive from such work. For the purpose of making 

 this apportionment the board is authorized to appoint three commissioners, 

 one of whom shall be a civil engineer, who shall classify the lands affected 

 by dividing them into forty-acre sub-division and marking the tracts receiv- 

 ing the greatest benefit, 100, and other tracts benefited in a less degree 

 such a percentage of 100 as the benefit received bears thereto. 



CLASSES OF BENEFITS. 



Benefits conferred upon farm lands by such drains as are usually con- 

 structed for outlets in an established district are of three classes: 



1. Direct benefits such as the land derives from an adequate and in- 

 dependent outlet afforded by a public ditch which abuts the tract or by the 

 passage of a ditch through the land, thereby giving it direct drainge in 

 addition to outlet privileges. 



2. Indirect benefits such as the right of owners of land requiring drain- 

 age to use the public draih as an outlet whenever laterals shall be con- 

 structed to it or protection of land from overflow by means of ditches which 

 intercept drainage water that would otherwise flow over it. 



3. General benefits such as additional healthfulness of the resident of 

 the district by reason of the drainage of some near-by pond or swamp, con- 

 venience in cultivation and management of lands, or other benefits resulting 

 to property from the drainage of adjoining lands. 



These are all assessable benefits but should have different weights in the 

 classification of lands for the apportionment of the cost of drainage. 



