ISO FARM DEVELOPMENT 



the neighbor's land would be necessary, and consent, on 

 the part of the neighbor, to construct the ditch would be 

 needed. This plan has the advantage in that there are no 

 deep ditches to be clogged by ice and snow early in the 

 spring. Carrying it westward along the road and dis- 

 charging it into the canal seemed to be the most feasible 

 plan. This, however, has proven to have the objection 

 of not following the lowest levels, but requiring a rather 

 deep, narrow ditch through a higher area, thus making 

 a place in which the water is held back in early spring 

 by the accumulated ice and snow. In most cases, a 

 neighbor can be induced to agree to a ditch being made 

 through a low area on his land, since it is advantageous 

 to him to have his own land better drained and to have 

 the flood waters from neighboring lands confined to 

 definite channels, which rapidly carry them off. It 

 would be economy for the owner of the farm to pay for 

 the right of way of this ditch and construct it at his own 

 expense, if this were necessary to secure the consent of 

 the neighbor. On the other hand, its value to the neigh- 

 bor should cause him to give free consent, and even to 

 assist in making the ditch and in keeping it in repair. 

 This illustrates the many cases where liberal co-opera- 

 tion of adjacent landowners is not only necessary to 

 effect a good system of drainage, but is also right as 

 between man and man. 



Roadside ditches. Having now decided upon the way 

 of conducting the water from the lowest point at the 

 middle of the north side of the section, we come to the 

 problem of how best to conduct the surface water to 

 this lowest point. This farm being a mile square, the 

 public highway bounds it on all sides. By inspecting 

 the cross section levels, as recorded in Figure 80, it will 

 be seen that the land is highest near the shallow lake. 

 This lake often became a stream which sometimes 

 overflowed its banks. Doubtless the land adjacent to 



