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Show DRAINAGE DISTRICT ORGANIZATION.. ORGANI-ZATION.. . .'" !.ehice, Sevier Counly, Utah. Mr. '0. :F. Brain, Drainage Engineer-of- the U. S. Department of Agriculture Agricul-ture just recently returned from Richfield', Rich-field', Sevier Co., where he and Mr. R. A. .Hart, also of the same service, took an afctive part in a movement for oi Drainage District organization and its attendant benefits. The question of dirainagc of. the seep lands of the irrigated regions is one of vast importance both in the MV$i 1nQreasing,ryieia??ndaiTjicting the public health, It io significant to note th'atvwhcrc a typhoid fever epidemic prevailed last year along the Sevier River, a. large part' of the population was surrounded sur-rounded iby 'stagnant seepage water. .'The Venice people have made the first- move to drain in these parts and thereby deserves appreciation. '' The movement for a drainage dis-' dis-' Ctlct organization was- bcjjjjn- nxm Godfrey Bruggcr and itsfaiccdIBB lows from seepage condittonsaaHr Venice. This district lies some five miles northeast of Richfield and the soil conditions arc very similar to those hear "Richfield. The soil is a red sandy loam coluvial or wash soil coming from the red sand stone hills on the west. Some of the lower parts along the Sevier River arc made up of a clay loam. Generally the soil is underlain by strata of coarse and fine sand. The slope varies from 5 to 2 per cent toward! the river. One canal runs through the ftppcr part of the wet tract and one about one mile west, with a new one under construction construc-tion still two miles further west. The Vidth of irrigated land above this tact is two miles. The soil varies from a clay loam on the bottom to "gravely soil on the upper benches. -; The ground water sinks deep in the higher levels and comes to the surface sur-face on the lower ground. The experiment ex-periment an, draining the Ogdcu-Gar,dncr. Ogdcu-Gar,dncr. tract, three milcu northeast! of Richfield has demonstrated what can be done with these lands. A portion, por-tion, of these, between six and ten-acres, ten-acres, which had grpwn nothing excepting ex-cepting .salt grass, for 15 years, this' year grew an. average of 40 bushels of oats per acre. The farmers with whom these investigations cooperated cooperat-ed arc very well - pleased. As said before, to Mr. Godfrey Bruggcr i3 due the credit of starting the movement. move-ment. .A public meeting was held Wednesday night, September 2, which was attended by nearly the whole male population. The talk made by Messrs. Brain and Hart were on the success of Drainage in These- Parts. The State Drainage Law, Its Provisions', Defects De-fects and Methods of Remedying . the Same. The question of organi-, zation under a stat law can not help Ibut be an interesting one and will be here taken up in brief. In many (parts none but cooperative efforts of all loonccrncd will bring about' the drainage necessary, and mutual agroc- . . j ment . has heen tried sua. jt-ifully. f Nearly all of the states -have their ' drainage laws and in many of them, valuable work has been done1 and 's now being done under the laws. In fact, very little is being done outside i of these laws. The state of Utah has such a law. The main features are as follows: A majority of . property owners I representing a major part of the land 1 within a district susceptible of one made of drainage by the same outlet may petition the County Court for r. f Drainage District Organization. The j County Commissioners may then cnll jj an election of the qualified electors in the ilistrict. The district after (being j mly organized with three or five supervisors su-pervisors elected at the time of .the r election for district may bond for four ; percent of the assessed valuation of .j all of the property within the district. n All taxes shall be assessed in propor- l tion to the benefits received. There j arc some defects to this law as applied to local conditions. In the first place only property owners should be al- , lowed to vote and their votes should be proportioned to the acreage held. A rcsidlcncc within the district should . not be required, only land; very few of such natural districts as those rc- quired by law have the people most interested residing within the district. ; The assessed valuation of such lands is so low that four .per cent for lending lend-ing purposes is not sufficient for reclaiming. re-claiming. Reclaiming these lands will, increase their value several hundred hun-dred per cent. To overcome this and the requirements for electors, a prominent pro-minent state constitution .lawyer has ' said tliat these districts will need1 to I be taken out of the class of corppratc bodies by a constitutional amendment. , The other states arc not hampered by any such limitations and we should not be. Nothing short of a general demand from all of the districts now organized and their co-operation on get these changes. The Bear River Farmers' Protective Association did good work last session ses-sion for these improvements, and with h ip coulcJ get all that is necessary. 1 o m |