5206 ARTICLE 24.

Worcester county which may have been recorded without any certificate'
of the clerk of any of the courts of this State accompanying the acknowl-
edgment thereof, in cases in which such certificates are necessary and
proper, certifying to the official character of the justice of the peace taking
the same; and all deeds of conveyance and mortgages of property in said
county which have been recorded in said county, without the seal of the
notary public before whom the acknowledgment was taken having been
first attached when the grantor resided in another State, and the acknowl-
edgment was made in that State, and declared to be valid to all intents
and purposes as if such defect and omission did not exist; provided, that
the execution and acknowledgment of such deeds and mortgages in all
other respects conformed to the laws of this State in such cases made and
provided, saving nevertheless, the rights of bona fide purchasers and en-
cumbrancers without notice, and excepting also such as were in suit in
courts of law or equity on May 31, 1882.
See sec. 53.

DRAINAGE.

1916, ch. 416. 1920 Code, sec. 95.

71. After the passage of this Act, the County Commissioners of Wi-
comico and Worcester Counties are hereby fully empowered to take such
steps as they may deem proper to drain the lands along the upper waters
of the Pocomoke River in said two counties by clearing out and deepening
the bed of said River, where it runs through said swamp lands and by
causing to be cut proper drains into said River through said lands, so as
to drain the same.

1916, ch. 416. 1920 Code, sec. 96.

72. Before undertaking said work said County Commissioners of
Worcester County shall select a suitable engineer and the County Com-
missioners of Wicomico County shall likewise select a suitable engineer,
and said two engineers shall jointly proceed to lay out a swamp district
in each of said counties and ascertain the number of acres of land in said
swamp district and also the number of acres in each county and shall make
suitable plots of the same and shall lay off the swamp land in each county
into divisions or zones according to the benefits it will receive, in their
judgment, from said drainage and the total cost in their judgment of
draining said land.

1916, ch. 416. 1920 Code, sec. 97.

73. Before beginning said work the County Commissioners of each
of said Counties shall adopt said report with full power in them to amend,
adopt, or reject said report and plans or to modify the same in such man-
ner as they may deem proper.

1916, ch. 416. 1920 Code, sec. 98.

74. After the adoption of suitable plans for doing said work, the Coun-
ty Commissioners of the two Counties shall advertise for bids in whole