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THE IEEIQATION AGE. 



ing executive in the case as the law of Ohio makes him 

 subject, of course, to the authority exercised by the 

 board. 



In this connection it is suggested that the State 

 of North Dakota may profit by taking a step in advance 

 of others by specifying in the law that all plans for 

 drainage shall be submitted to the state engineer for his 

 approval or revision before adoption by the board. The 

 need of a review of the plans by a competent disinter- 

 ested authority is felt in other states, but as far as I 

 am informed no provision for review of this kind is 

 made. In states where the office of state engineer exists 

 and especially where both irrigation and drainage are 

 agricultural activities, this officer should be charged 

 with the examination and approval of plans for both 

 and also with the inspection of the work when com- 

 pleted. 



A revision of the Utah drainage law is contem- 

 plated during the next session of the legislature. A 

 provision for the submission of all drainage plans 



in the middle West by drainage. We may wisely avoid 

 the mistakes brought to our attention and by so doing 

 secure correspondingly more satisfactory results. 



Here is another consideration which should really 

 precede all others. Do the people of North Dakota 

 want to drain their lands ? A drainage law does not say 

 you shall or shall not drain, but it says you may if you 

 choose, and provides a way for doing the work neces- 

 sary to that end. 



A case within my personal knowledge well illus- 

 trates this phase of the subject. Twenty-five years ago 

 I made a survey and plan for a small drainage district 

 in Illinois. The land amounting to about 800 acres 

 was held by well-to-do fanners and adjoining high 

 priced farm lands in one of the best sections of the 

 State. The work was opposed by a majority of the 

 owners, who succeeded in getting the matter dismissed. 

 Two years since a letter from a young engineer in that 

 locality informed me that the most pronounced opposers 

 of the project had died, and the present holders of the 



Salzer Ford Saw Mill, Black Lake, Idaho. 



covered by the law to the state engineer for his approval 

 or revision will be incorporated in an amendment. 

 Those charged with the administration of a drainage 

 project affecting numerous landowners can not exercise 

 too great care in perfecting the plans, and should know 

 when the work which they call for has been faithfully 

 executed. 



It was suggested at the beginning of this discus- 

 sion that the law should be workable. This is an ex- 

 pressive though not elegant term. No lawyer lacking an 

 intimate knowledge of practicable drainage operations 

 can draft a good workable law. In this undertaking 

 he needs the assistance of the drainage engineer and 

 landowner to which group may be profitably added the 

 county commissioner and the county auditor. I do not 

 propose to decry drainage laws because there have been 

 difficulties in their enactment, in their confirmation 

 by the courts and in their operation by the people whom 

 they were designed to assist. To them may be attributed 

 the substantial progress so far made in improving lands 



lands were taking steps to carry out the long deferred 

 plans which, by the way, he had accidentally unearthed 

 from the township archives. 



It is well known that the late Lord Scully, owner 

 of thousands of acres in central Illinois, persistently 

 refused to invest any of his wealth in the drainage of 

 his estate though besought long and often by his tenants 

 to do so, until a few years before his death he suddenly 

 waked up to the importance of this improvement and 

 began to drain his wet lands with great vigor and 

 thoroughness. 



It is assumed that the farmers of eastern North 

 Dakota want to improve their lands in this way and to 

 that end desire the best drainage law obtainable. With 

 the precedents afforded by other states in full view, and 

 their experience in drainage covering a quarter of a cen- 

 tury as a guide, North Dakota should not fail to secure 

 one of the best if not the best law upon agriculture 

 drainage. 



