The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1915-01-30
.kOOC HICHING TO
SPEND s. 5iI49, ~
FOR new bitches
Contracts Will Be Let Next week for
Construction Of More Than Two
Hundred Miles Of Drains.
o BENEFIT 2e1, 1884 ACRES
Represent ative Bessette Proposes Plan
Which Would Solve the State
Drainage Problem.

Drainage Problem.
Contracts calling for the expend-
iture of more than half a million
dollars will be let in Koochiching
county next week for judicial ditch
construction. The contracts will in
clude bitches No. II, No. II, No. 18
and No. 20.
According to o. L. Dent, referee
in ditch matters, a large number Of
contractors will bid for the jobs and
the competition will be keen. Els
Inmates on the cost of the construc-
ton of the four projects total $780,
1852 and the drains, in all, will be
about 211 miles long. --~--.e.S r e.
"< One 100 Miles Long.
One of The bitches, No. 18, will be
built at cost of approximately
$280,484 and will be 101 miles long:
No. Ia will be 1915 miles long, the
estimated cost being $135,929; No.
II will be 37.5 miles long, the esti-
mated cost being $86,9O8, while No.
20 will be twenty miles long and
will cost about $46,369. The total
number of acres to be benefited by
the completion of the bitches will
number 261,3S4, while the cost OF :
construction will total $549,762.
A. A. Andrews of Bemidji, repre-
sents the petitions in all four in
stances, and E.. w. Kibbey is the en-
|gineer. s5s7-s-7z- p-yz-ygz
Funds for Drainage.
Representative Fred Bessette of
Orr, St. Louis county, as result of
close study of the drainage problem,
has evolved a plan, which took the
form of bill introduced in the house
recently, under which a revolving
fund for drainage of state lands can
be created without any expense to
the state funds whatever.
In the past all state drainage has
been provided for by appropriations
out. of the general revenue fund; and
it has been hard fight every time
to induce the legislature to appro-
pirate the money needed to carry on
drainage work = -
Despite the argument that drain
age appropriations are not expenses
but investments returning profit, it
has always been uphill work get
ting the necessary drainage appro-
priations from the legislature.
Under the plan proposed by Mr..
Bessette, it will be possible to pro-
vide ample funds for drainage pur-
poses without making any appropria-
lions whatever.
Revolving Fund Planned.
The plan to provide, by, an amend
ment to existing laws proposed in the
bill which Mr.. Bessette has pre-
pared, that the cost of draining state
lands already drained and now on
the market, when the lands are sold,
shall be urned into a drainage re-
volving fund. - :
While it is impossible to figure
precisely what the fund thus pro-
vided for will amount to, from the
state records now available, it is es-
timated that fully $4,000 can be
secured for this purpose from the
lands the state proposes to sell dur
ing the present year.
The state will offer for sale during
I1915 about $4,000 acres Of land.
About $4,000 acres of this land have
been drained by direct appropria-
lions. The state auditors report
shows that, while drainage costs on
an average about So per acre, lands
appraised at IS to 81 per acre have,
after being drained, been sold at
$3.50 to 500 per acre.
Allowing only an increase of 81.
per acre on the u, 900 acres of drain
ed land to be sold this year, the
drainage revolving fund would be
started with $15O,O00; and subse-
quent years sales would increase the
fund.
Would Benefit Largely.
Az drainage NOT On1v honaf7fa tho