518 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ASSESSMENT OF PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 



Public highways within a drainage district are benefited by the construc- 

 tion of ditches and hence may be assessed for a portion of their cost and 

 maintenance. The assessment, however, must be made upon a different 

 basis from that of farm lands. The title to land occupied by highways is in 

 the abutting owners, who are assessed for the improvement as ' 'farm land." 

 The public highways do not derive their benefits from added productiveness 

 of the soil as do farm lands, but from their improvement as roads for travel. 

 The public using such roads receives a benefit by reason of their improve- 

 ment. An assessment for road benefits when made must be paid by all prop- 

 erty owners in township and county upon the basis of assessed valuation of 

 property and is not restricted to property within the drainage district. The 

 Iowa law charges the cost of constructing a ditch across a right of way and 

 of building necessary bridges to the township road fund and the county 

 bridge fund respectively. 



The assessment against highways within the district should be a percent- 

 age of the entire cost of the ditch improvement on the theory that there is a 

 ratio of value existing between highways and the property they serve. The 

 greater the value of the property served by the road, the greater the value of 

 a good road to it. The drainage ditches of a district may in some cases 

 make possible improvements of very great value to the highways; in others 

 they may affect them but little. 



The percentage of cost of district drainage which should be assessed 

 against the highways should not often be less than two per cent nor more 

 than eight per cent. From this amount should be deducted the cost of con- 

 struction across rights of way in the several cases, since in Iowa the law 

 charges this expense to the road fund. 



ASSESSMENT OF RAILROADS. 



Railroads constitute another class of property affected by the drainage 

 district work. The Iowa law requires the railroad to construct the ditch 

 across the right of way, the expense of which should be credited to the rail- 

 road company. With reference to the assessment of railroads, the law says: 



"And the commissions to assess benefits shall fix and determine the actual 

 benefits to the property of the railroad company within the levee or drain- 

 age district, and make return thereof with their regular return." 



If the drainage improves the stability of the road bed or makes more 

 permanent structures across the water ways possible, there is a benefit which 

 is assessable. The assertion that the increased production and consequent 

 addition to the business of the railroads which cross the district, resulting 

 from the reclamation and improvement of the farm lands and highways, 

 constitutes an assessable benefit may be disputed. That the railroads within 

 the limits of a drainage district share in a most substantial manner in the 

 benefits accruing from drainage work can not be denied. Transportation is 

 as much the business of railroads as the production of grain and live stock 

 is to the farmer. The business of both is directly and specifically increased 

 by drainage district work provided such work increases the volume of the 

 production of the fields. The policy pursued by some railroads during the 



