Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version. If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options. MAINTENANCE OF MULTI-LANDOWNER DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS IN OHIOPublished by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org Citation: Paper number 701P0304, . (doi: 10.13031/2013.15742)Authors: B.C. Atherton, L.C. Brown, N.R. Fausey, and F.J. Hitzhusen Keywords: Agricultural drainage, group drainage, drainage districts, ditch maintenance, drainage benefits
Much of Ohio was uninhabitable by humans until it was drained during the nineteenth century.
Settlement lagged in many areas because of wetness and the presence of wetness and disease. As
the population increased, landowners cooperated to construct mutually beneficial drainage
improvements to convert land with wetness problems to productive cropland. By 1884, it was
estimated that 20,000 miles of public ditches benefiting over 4.45 million hectares of land had
been constructed. However, lack of organized maintenance often resulted in cycles of declining
benefits followed by reconstruction for many of these drainage improvements.
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