Wo



Wsgconsin State Drainage Association



improvement, especially when applied to larger projects. As the
law stands now, the Town Board, at the first meeting, is called
upon to decide upon the advisability of laying out and construct-
ing the ditch without having before it any careful estimate of the
cost or of the benefit to be derived. Either the College of Agri-
culture should furnish this information, or the Town Board, with
the aid of the engineer, should be required to make its investiga-
tion before the first meeting so as to be able to pass intelligently
upon the question of whether the ditch should be laid or not, as
the cost and the benefits are really the deciding factors on that
question.
  The law governing the method of assessing benefits and col-
lecting assessments, is loose, and loose practise has grown up
under it. It provides that the benefits shall be assessed and be a
lien against the lands benefited. Under this provision it is not
always easy to decide just what land is benefited. It is not un-
common to find that in describing the land benefited it is the prac-
tise to say, for instance, "Five acres in the N. E. 1/4 of the N.
W. 1/4 of Section 8." That is no description at all, and would
not support the tax deed. If a part only of an entire tract owned
by one person, described according to government subdivision or
by metes and bounds is benefited, in my judgment, the whole
should be assessed by its proper description as the land to be
benefited. Upon inquiry made of Mr. Vaughn, I was informed
that some of the courts of this state have placed that construction
on the law as it now exists. Nevertheless, it will do no harm to
make the law more definite and certain. It at least would have
the effect of making the practise under it more definite and cer-
tain.
  The present statutes do not require notice of the- assessment to
be given. I think this is a mistake and some day may give rise
to litigation. The Board should sit as a board of review as in
other matters of taxation, and notice should be given to those to
be assessed of the time when and place where they will
sit. The law should also be made plainer as to whether or not
the assessments can be collected out of the personal property be-
longing to the owner of the land assessed. Our Supreme Court
has held as to general taxes levied against real estate, that they
may be collected out of personal property owned by the person