Milford chronicle., 1956-05-11
Plan Construction At
Green Branch Ditch

The Green Branch Tax Ditch
third in Kent County, will begin
construction this week, it was an
nounced by the Soil Conservation
District of Kent County The Green
Branch Tax Ditch is located south
west of Vernon and will empty
into the Marshy Hope at the Emil
Gerard farm and the C. Wesley
Everline farm.
Sixty-seven individual farms with
a total CT Al. i'll acres will be bene-
flied. The Green Branch, like all
other tax bitches, will provide
drainage outlet for the farms with
in the watershed, which at present
have no way of draining their
land because of lack of an outlet
to carry the water away. Tax dit
ches are designed to drain the
lowest fields within their water
shed. A total of 25 prongs and sub
prongs from the main part of the
Green Branch reach out to the
81 farms needing these important
outlets.
Mr.. Oscar Lavoie, Soil Scientist
with the Soil Conservation Service
in Delaware says that the general
area of the Green Branch water
shed contains approximately 70qo
cropland and 309o woodland. OF this
cropland. about 6Gqc is composed
of poorly drained soils such as
Fallsington, Pocomoke and Woods
town soils. He also states that
these soils are capable of making
good cropland when properly
drained.
Mr.. James w. Hambley, Soil
Conservation Service engineer in
charge of planning, design, and
construction of the Green Branch,
has estimated the cost from start
to finish as $42,272 1t is also es-
timated that it will take approx
mately IS months to complete the
job.
The. main outlet ditch will be
constructed first from the lower
end of the drainage area to the
upper end, which extends to the
James Cahall farm. After the main
is dug, all the various rs prongs
and sub-prongs will be dug and
connected into the main. A Is
right-of-way will be left through
the woods for inspection and main
tenance as required by the Della
ware Drainage Law. The roadway
and ditch banks in the woods will
be seeded to Serica Iespedeza, a
i low growing shrub which will
keep heavy brush and trees from
Iovergrowing the banks and, at the
same time. provide wildlife cover
and food.
A Tax Ditch is a chain of cooper
ating agencies. The group of far
mers desiring outlets for their
drainage, petition their county Soil
Conservation District for assis-
tance through the State Soil Con-
servation Commission. The Soil
| Soil Conservation Service, a federal
agency, provides the technical as
sistance for survey, design, and
construction supervision. Local
banks loan the money needed by
the farmers tax ditch companies.
which in turn is matched dollar for
dollar by the state through the Levy
Court Mr. Elmer II. Talbert, State
Drainage Engineer, guides the tax
ditch company through the legal
processes from its beginning
throughout its maintenance.
The tax ditch company repays
the borrowed money to the bank by
taxing each farmer according to
fhe number of acres he has with
in the watershed, Each taxable acre
means voting power the farmer
NAV exercise in the companv's
husiness-thus the name TAX
Ditch"
A tax ditch does not necessarily
bring more land into cultivation.
Int 1t increases the capabilities of
the crnn1and in its drainage area,
70 that more divirsiAad farming
may be carried ont with different
.vnee of cwons and more efficient
forming operations.
Kew r,onbars of fha Green
D~anch Tax Ditch ore the nan-
-said NAM go~a' Mr.. w. Stafford,
rhairrnan Harrino ofon. Mr.. Wood
-ow uoiIowov. naar prour, sviIfa.
w- Tony Gerard, near Andrews
-sita