Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1912-10-15
DRAINAGE WORK
IN This COUNTY
It is Estimated That Five Hundred
Thousand Dollars More Will
be Expended in Few
Years.
STILL MUCH WORK TO BE DONE
Estimated That County Has Expend.
ed $1,5oo,ooo for Drain
Z age Purposes.

Perhaps no one thing has added
more to the value of Hamilto coun.
ty farms than the drainage work
that has been done the past few
years. Thousands of acres that were
practically useless have been re.
/ deemed, and now big crops are be
ing produced upon land that was
formerly non-productive because OF
its swampy condition. Experience
has proven that low lands we'll tiled
are the most productive, as the soil
is unusually rich. Of course large
sums of money haye\ been expended
in drainage in this county, but it is
the best investment the land owners
and farmers have ever made and
men who a few years ago hesitated
to tile on account of the expense are
now eager to get outlets, even in
some cases when it costs from $50
| 10 $4U per acre.
A short time ago a Freeman-Trib-
une reader expressed desire that
| we. secure a report of the drainage
work already done and estimates of
what Is yet to be accomplished in
this line. Through the assistance of
two Of. our local engineers. E. S.
Boudinot and r. G. Austin, the fol-
lowing facts were secured at the
court house: a,
Hamilton county has seventeen
townships, sixteen Of which have up
to the present time built approx
mately $1,5O0,oOO in outlet drains.
The remaining township Boone
has as yet no county drainage.
OF the. work in the sixteen town
ships, 1873 districts are. already es-
tablished, 116 of which are complet-
ed, II are under construction and
in addition to this there are approx
inately 20 petitions for districts as
yet unestablished and for a part Of
which the preliminary work has not
yet been done. This preliminary
engineering will all be done this fall
and the opening of the spring Of
1913 will see 81 districts ready to
start construction. The cost of these
districts will aggregate about $780,
600. The work under construction
but not finished will aggregate
5000, 000--making a total of drain
age work to be finished and in course
of construction in 1918 amount to
100000. A great part of this work
will require about four years to fin
ish and during that time the amount
of drainage will doubtless have
doubled, for the reason that while
the greater portion Of the large out
let drains are already built, the sub
districts which are natural result
will require large tile work. These
sub-districts will comprise from 800
to 1000 acres each and have their
outlet in the large main lines. Then,
too, some of the small open bitches
must eventually be replaced by tile
work and so reclaim many acres now
occupied by the right-of-way for the
bitches, thus removing the large un-
slightly banks.
i y,, al IN oil
must come in the future there are
thousands of miles of private drain
age, consisting of to IL inch tile,
which must be laid to thoroughly
improve the land. This work Is an
assured fact because the high value
of our lands demands the improve
ment. This last year there has
been built by the several engineers
residing in Webster City approx
mately 100 miles of private work.
This represents but a small part of
the tile work done, however, for the
engineers do this class of work only
as side issue, because of the great
amount of county and city work
which demands most OF their time.
In addition to our home engineers
there are about twenty others doing
drainage work in the county and 1T
is fair to assume that they have
each done like amount of small
drainage. which in the I aggregate
will total about 500 miles. The
amount of work Is really astound-
ing, for to this must be added many
miles that are laid of which no rec
ord can be obtained. AS will be
seen from these facts tile drainage
in Hamilton county is far from fin
ished.
- Right glasses help weak
~ eyes. Let me prove 1t. T.