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a just estimate of maintenance cost, Siurely it would not be fair 

 to ourselves nor to the commissions to estimate the cost of up- 

 keep of a drainage system in any county upon a total foot 

 basis, or upon a total area basis, in which county ten, twenty, 

 or thirty per cent, of the drainage ditches are worthless for 

 our purpo'ses ; and which at certain periods, and under some 

 conditions, entail an added expense in that they must be in- 

 spected and treated in order to prevent breeding therein. 



In our county we have made nearly 1,000,000 feet of drainage 

 ditches. The annual cost of up-keep and repairing is about 

 $500. This outlay is principally on our slow-draining ditches 

 through cat-tail areas, where the nature of the soil causes ditches 

 to '^sluff." Our ditches serving Pump No. 2, and draining 

 seven hundred acres of cat-tail area, require little or no atten- 

 tion, because the current is drawn through them at such velocity 

 that they purge themselves. The ditches draining our salt hay 

 meadows require little more attention than annual inspection 

 and the occasional removal of an obstruction. Thousands of 

 feet of our ten-inch ditches on grass meadows made in 1909 

 and 19101 are in perfect condition to-day and are rendering 

 100 per cent, efficiency. Upon a very recent examination they 

 appeared almost entirely closed in on the surface, but show the 

 original depth and perfect circulation of tidewater. 



We claim a very high average of percentage of efficiency of 

 our drainage system. Not one-twentieth of one per cent, of 

 our ditches require oiling; still we do not claim that our system 

 is perfect, nor that it cannot be improved upon. May we not 

 ask O'urselves the question, whether, in planning or laying out 

 this system of drainage, we have done those things which we 

 ought not to have done, or have we left undone those things 

 which we should have done? 



When we say we have made one million or two million feet 

 of ditches in our county, that means a considerable outlay, 

 original cost and up-keep; but can we say that we are getting 

 100 per cent, efhciency of the total? Can we say that ninety, 

 eighty, or even seventy per cent, of these ditches are doing a 

 proportionate share of draining? Have we made any consider- 



