LAND DRAINAGE. 



General Acts, Chapter 289. 



An Act rel.\tive to the improvement of certain low land. 

 Be it enacted, etc., as follows: 



Section 1. If it is necessary or useful to drain or flow a meadow, 

 swamp, marsh, beach, or other low land which is held by several proprie- 

 tors, or remove obstructions in rivers or streams leading therefrom, such 

 improvements may be made as hereinafter provided. 



Section 2. One member of the state department of health designated 

 bj' said department, and one member of the state board of agriculture 

 designated by said board, shall constitute a board to be known as the 

 drainage board in carrj'ing out the provisions of this act. Said board 

 shall serve without additional compensation and is hereby authorized to 

 investigate the question of utilizing the wet lands in the commonwealth, 

 including meadows, swamps, marshes, beaches and other low lands, and 

 to ascertain what lands, if any, in the commonwealth maj^ advantageously 

 be drained for agricultural and industrial uses, the protection of the 

 public health, the utilization of deposits therein, or for other purposes. 

 Said board may publish and disseminate facts of general interest ascer- 

 tained in the conduct of the investigation hereby authorized, and may 

 make and pubhsh surveys of tracts of land in need of drainage, showing 

 their situation, area and outlets, the best methods and the cost of drain- 

 ing them, the uses to which they are best adapted, and such other details 

 as may be deemed advisable. The said board shall report annually to 

 the legislature its doings hereunder in the preceding year. The board 

 may expend during the current fiscal j^ear a sum not exceeding one thou- 

 sand dollars. 



Section 3. In carrying out the provisions of this act the said board 

 shall seek the co-operation and assistance of the United States depart- 

 ment of agriculture, and may employ such engineers, assistants, or other 

 agents as may be necessary, who shall have ingress, egress and regress to 

 land which said board may desire to survey or examine. 



Section 4. The proprietors, referred to in section one, or a majority 

 in interest either in value or area, may file a petition to the state drain- 

 age board created by section two of this act, in which they shall set forth 

 their desire to form a drainage district under the provisions of this act, 

 stating the proposed name of the drainage district, the necessity for the 

 same, with a description of the proposed starting point, routes and ter- 

 mini of the work and a general description of the lands proposed to be 

 affected, together with the names of known owners of said lands. And 

 if the purpose of such owners is the repair and maintenance of a ditch or 

 ditches or other work theretofore constructed under any law of this com- 

 monwealth, said petition shall give a general description of the same 

 with such particulars as may be deemed important. Upon the receipt 



