772 LAWS OF MARYLAND.

improvement, and what proportion of the cost shall be paid by
the petitioners and others interested in the work, such propor-
tion not to be less than fifteen per cent, or more than fifty per
cent, of such cost, and shall have the power to determine what
individuals are to be damaged and what individuals are to be
benefited thereby, and the amount of such individual damage
and benefit, and to allow and assess the same; provided the
amount of individual damage and individual benefit shall not
be finally fixed until notice shall be given to the person to be
affected, and to have the opportunity to be heard, such person
to have the right to appeal from the final decision of the County
Commissioners to the Circuit Court for the County. When all
the assessments for benefits made by the County Commissioners
shall have been paid into the County Treasury, and not until
then, the improvement petitioned for and determined upon shall
be made.

351. Whenever any owner of property in Baltimore County
shall have opened, laid out or graded any avenue or road for
the public convenience, and is willing to dedicate the same to
public uses, by a good and sufficient deed duly recorded, the
County Commissioners of Baltimore County are authorized to
accept the same, if in their opinion the same be necessary and
convenient for public use, and upon such acceptance, which shall
be endorsed upon and recorded with the deed, said avenue or
road shall be kept in good order and repair as other County
roads; provided, however, that previous to such acceptance said
road shall not be less than thirty feet in width and duly and
properly graded in the judgment of the County Commissioners;
and provided further, that a plat of the road so dedicated shall
be furnished with and made a part of said deed and recorded
therewith, and a duplicate plat shall be furnished for preserva-
tion among the records of the County Commissioners of Balti-
more County.

352. Whenever any road shall have been in use by the public
for twenty years, though the same may never have been con-
demned or granted as a public highway, the County Com-
missioners of Baltimore County, if they deem public necessity
requires the adoption of the same as such, shall declare the said
road to be a public highway, with full power to relocate and
straighten the same, in their discretion, and shall publish a
notice to that effect once a week for two successive weeks in
one or more newspapers published in Baltimore County; pro-
vided, said road shall not be less than thirty feet in width; and