24 P.D. 123 



REPORT OF THE DIVISION OF RECLAMATION, 

 SOIL SURVEY AND FAIRS 



RECLAMATION 



The reclamation work of this Division has been conducted as in pre- 

 vious years through the State Reclamation Board, of which the director 

 of the Division is secretary. The report of the Board follows : 



REPORT OF THE STATE RECLAMATION BOARD 



Owing to the death of Mr. Warren C. Jewett, former chairman of the 

 Reclamation Board, and the serious illness of the secretary, Mr. Leslie 

 R. Smith, the Commissioners of Health and Agriculture acted as mem- 

 bers of the Board from their respective departments during the early 

 part of the year. Later Mr. Leslie R. Smith of Hadley was reappointed 

 to represent the Department of Agriculture and Mr. Gordon Hutchins of 

 Concord to represent the Department of Public Health. The Governor 

 and Council voted to approve the designation of Mr. Richard K. Hale, 

 Department of Public Works, as the third member of the State Reclama- 

 tion Board. Mr. Smith has acted as secretary and executive oflEicer of 

 the Board since his reappointment. 



Recommendatiotms for Legislation 



The legislature of 1926 gave the Reclamation Law very careful study 

 and corrected most of its defects. No legislation is recommended for the 

 coming session. 



General Work of the Board 



As in previous years, the Board has continued the supervision and 

 direction of existing reclamation projects in their formation, construc- 

 tion and maintenance, and has acted as a bureau of information on vari- 

 ous drainage matters for State and town officials, and for those individ- 

 uals who presented to it their problems. It wishes to point out that the 

 Reclamation Law was dravra to provide the owners of wet lands with the 

 necessary legal machinery for accomplishing their purposes; that under 

 this law the entire cost is assessed upon the land benefitted ; that the State 

 pays only the cost of supervision; that the law is available for all wish- 

 ing to use it ; that it can be used to solve many of the sanitary problems 

 of cities and towns. The Board has continued its policy of encouraging 

 district organizations to work with and assist town authorities in solving 

 their mutual drainage problems. It desires to again emphasize the fact 

 that the cost of projects developed under the Reclamation Law is assessed 

 upon the land owners benefitted ; the only portion of these expenses borne 

 by the State being that of assistance in organizing and of supervision. 

 One additional project has started construction this year. 



Drainage Districts 



There are only three districts organized under the original Drainage 

 Law; namely. Cherry Rum Brook District, Greenfield; the Salisbury Dis- 

 trict at Salisbury and the Weweantic River District in Carver and Ware- 

 ham. Construction work on the first has been finished for some time, 

 and practically all the assessments for this work have been met by the 

 land owners. Only a small amount of maintenance work has been done 

 this year. The Salisbury District has been inactive except for making 

 another attempt to obtain the consent of the county commissioners to 

 finance the project. This district should be reorganized as a Reclama- 

 tion District, in order to avail itself of the methods provided for financing. 

 The Weweantic River District has been inactive this year, although the 



