278.100.  Establishment of soil and water conservation districts. — 1.  Whenever the state soil and water districts commission shall receive from any county or any township or townships thereof a petition declaring that the saving of the soil and water in that county or in the specified township or townships is in their opinion a public necessity, said petition being signed by not less than twenty-five land representatives in each township or by fifty percent of the land representatives, if there are less than fifty land representatives in any township in the area covered by the petition, the soil and water commission, when satisfied that such petition is valid, shall call for and conduct within the area described by such petition, a public hearing of land representatives within that area, on the question of establishing that area as a soil and water conservation district.  If from this hearing it shall appear to the soil and water commission that there is a general desire for establishing as a soil and water district the county or the specified township or townships, the commission shall without delay determine by a survey of the conditions of farm land in the county or specified township or townships whether the establishment of that area as a soil and water conservation district is actually necessary and administratively feasible.  Upon reaching a favorable conclusion on these matters, the commission shall call for and conduct, or cause to be conducted, a referendum by ballot of land representatives within that area, on the question of establishing the county or the specified township or townships as a soil and water conservation district.

  2.  If a majority of all land representatives voting in this referendum, do vote in favor of this establishment, and if in the judgment of the soil and water commission the total number of votes cast does amount to a substantial expression of opinion, the soil and water commission shall at once declare the county or township, or townships thereof, as specified by the referendum, to be established as a soil and water conservation district; but if these provisions are not met, the soil and water commission shall at once declare the question of establishment to have been lost, although another referendum on this question may be called by the soil and water commission for this area at any time after two years from the date of this declaration, provided the commission meanwhile has received evidence of a more general desire for the establishment of a soil and water district for this area.  Subsequent to the establishment of a township or townships as a soil and water district any other township or townships in the same county may be added to this soil and water district by the procedure used for the first establishment.