1874-Annual Report - Laserfiche WebLink

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10 Thus much your Committee have felt hound to say, to prevent any indiscreet action on the part of the town ; which would involve us in suits ; and thereby increase our expenses, and impair the character of the place. On entering upon the duties of the Commission, and view- ing the premises, we saw at once that the enterprise was greater, and would involve a heavier expenditure than we had anticipated. The distances on measurement, proved to he greater, and the level character of the meadows required deeper cuttings at the out -lets, than we had contemplated, and so requiring more expensive culverts across the LIigh- ways. But with this increase in the magnitude and expense of the undertaking, we saw what we regarded as a corres- ponding increase of the benefits of draining, We found on personal examination, a larger tractof land than we had supposed,- affected by the waters of these meadows. We found acres upon acres, which had been reclaimed, where the ditches had grown up with weeds, and the wild grass had come in and displaced the better kind of grasses, owing to the water that stood upon the meadow, thereby rendering the land too wet for cultivation. And the reason why the ditches were not kept open, was that there -was a bar or ob- struction in the channel below, on some other man's land, which kept back the water; and hence opening the channel on ono man's premises, would net relieve him of the flood of water which in -a wet time would overflow his land. As evidence of this, we found in some places broad and open ditches three or four feet deep, filled with water, nearly to a level with the surrounding land, thereby showing that such ditches were nearly useless, because there was no. suitable outlet below for the water. We found other meadow land under a good state of culti- vation, where the owners complained, that if they put on a good dressing of manure, the next freshet that camp, would overflow the laud, and the owner of the.Iand below in some cases, would reap a greater advantage from the manure, than