146 FARM DEVELOPMENT 



the counties and townships may run smaller drains, and 

 with which the farmers, in turn, may connect their farm 

 drains. Even the aid of the United States has been 

 invoked, and there may prove to be sufficient cause for 

 co-operation between the United States and Canada. In 

 northeast Minnesota are large peaty swamps, in some 

 cases covering many thousands of acres. These cannot 

 well be drained by individual farmers, since no farmer 

 can get an outlet unless a general canal is built, into 

 which he can conduct his farm drains. Minnesota, fol- 

 lowing Illinois, Ohio,* Indiana and other older States, 

 has recognized the need of the county and even the State 

 co-operating with the farmers in constructing large 

 drains, and the State legislature has passed laws under 

 which landowners, townships and counties may organ- 

 ize into associations cooperating in the drainage of large 

 districts. 



Cost and profits must be carefully studied. Where 

 good lands are low in price, drainage must be done at 

 slight expense per acre to justify the investment. On 

 the other hand, where the lands are valuable, consider- 

 able expense may be put into open and tile drains and 

 a profit made from the investment. In most cases drain- 

 ing of the really wet lands can be done for a sum far less 

 than the increased value produced. Surface drains can 

 often be used to reclaim land, the increased value of 

 which will represent many times the cost of the drain. 

 In some cases a single drain will carry the water off, or 

 keep it off, a large area, as in a wide slough ; while in 

 other cases, in sections where there is a heavy rainfall, 

 open or tile drains are necessarily placed close together. 

 Since tile draining is quite expensive, it usually pays 

 only where the drained lands are relatively high in price, 



*The revised drainage law of Ohio is regarded as being a model 

 of its kind; under it great drainage projects have been put into 

 operation at a remarkably low cost and with equitable adjustment 

 of both public and private interests. 



