106 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



landowners. The history of drainage projects undertaken by 

 co-operation has been that before the project was fairly 

 launched certain difficulties presented themselves for solution 

 on which the landowners could not agree. The location of the 

 improvement and the proportion of costs to be borne by each 

 landowner were almost always a source of dissension. Even if 

 all the landowners were agreed on all questions, the costs of 

 the improvements were such that it was frequently impossible 

 for them to finance the project. Under the co-operative plan 

 it was impossible to carry large projects to successful comple- 

 tion. These difficulties emphasized the need of a method of 

 organization which would permit the majority to act through 

 a board, which would prevent the opposing minority from 

 defeating the promotion of a legitimate project, and which 

 would provide a means of financing the large as easily as the 

 small enterprise. The superseding of the partnership in the 

 commercial world by the corporation suggested the desirability 

 of some forni of corporate organization to replace the unsatis- 

 factory co-operative organization. In the construction of drain- 

 age works it frequently happens that the improvements must 

 cross lands belonging to persons who oppose the project. Under 

 the Constitutions of the individual States and the United States 

 private property cannot be taken without due process of law. 

 To satisfy these constitutional guarantees of private property 

 rights it was necessary to pass State laws clothing drainage 

 organizations with corporate powers, including that of eminent 

 domain. As the power of eminent domain is granted only to 

 corporations performing a public or semipublic function, drain- 

 age organizations have been defined by courts as quasi public 

 corporations. Being a corporation, the landowners act through 

 properly constituted boards whose duties and authority are 

 prescribed by the drainage law. This results in common action, 

 and submerges the interests of the individual in the welfare of 

 the community. 



Essential Provisions of a Drainage Law. 



The necessity of promoting a drainage organization in con- 

 formity with the State and Federal Constitutions has already 

 been intimated. The history of early drainage legislation shows 



