The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1867-12-20
DITCHING.


DITCHING.
.MEssRs, EDs;-OW county needs
so much ditchin aud und draipage,
and isiso much distressetl by large
bodies of unimproyest lands owned
by men of wealth who will neither
improve their lands nor suffer others,
that I do not wonder that your cor
respondent "B. R." should want our
ditch law improved. Still, l think
he overlooks the real necessity of the
case. Our trustees and commission
ers are empowered by the law to tax
lands for ditch purposes in proportion
to the benefit received, and it seems
to me that all D. R. requires is to
have those officers all OF like mind
with himself in regard to the extent
of the benefits. of the ditch.
The suggestion that the whole
county should be taxed, because ben
Gifted, meets an objection which may
be seen ~ an illustration. Battles
and Jennings owned land side by
side. Battles dltched and thoroughly
improved his land Jennings did no
such thing. His lands remain in
improved thicket and swamps. But
Battles Improvements have doubled
the value of Jennings lands. Now
at last q law is made that compels
litclnng, aud now Jennings says "see
here, Battles, my ditching WILDE 4
general benefit to you, you must help
pay for it," May not Battles say
"ah you have already had the bene-
fitef my ditchiBg!" Thus it is ciearly
seen 'hst B. RS plan would he only
another tax on the bees for the bene-
dit of the drones. The right rule is
to make land ditch itself; if it is not
worth enough for that, it is not worth
keeping. Poor men do not object to
this; they live On their little acres,
and are but too anxious to ditch their
own if they can get an outlet through
the broad lands Of the spectators.
1t was the neglect of the latter class
to ditch that made our ditch law a
necessity. and sowed ague and fevers
in every hut Of the poor throughout
Northwestern Ohio for so many
years. Let them now lay out in
ditching half the advance in their
lands caused by the labor of the ac-
tual settler. and 1t will have two eff
fects beneficial to the public. It will
make the land healthy and pleasant
to pass through, and it will tend to
throw unimproved lands. upon the
market, thus filling up cur vacant
half school districts and developing
our county's agricultural resources.
do not kno y, Of course, who q. r.
is; l only know by inference who he
is not. He is not physician who in
early times witnessed the slavery of
fevers in our then wholly unditched
county if he were he would rejoice
at any reasonable means of eradica-
ting the evil. He is not q learned
man or he, would not SO horribly "cut
up" our noble language. He is not
large land owner who has made a
fortune of The general Improvement
Of the country, or he would be
ashamed to appear before the public
asking charity and a general tax for
ditching his land. He is, he must
be, some poor uneducated man with
whom the world has dealt hardly; he
has been in the army all through the
war, and he has but just forty acres,
and that is fine little ridge adjoln-
ing stream; he needs no ditch, but
his neighbors back of him have
taken advantage of his ignorance of
the law and compelled him to cut for
them an outlet without compensa-
ton.
If l am right in this matter, as /
must be, and the gentleman will favor
me with his address and the facts in
his case in full, / will head a sub
scription f0r his benefit with five
ldollars-.aAV- be more. --L i-#L
Yours truly,
j. B. DUNN.