Before any county commission may organize, incorporate and establish a drainage district, or make any improvement as provided in this chapter, there must be filed with the clerk of the county commission a petition signed by one or more landowners, whose lands will be liable to be affected by or assessed for the construction of the improvements necessary to be made, which petition shall set forth the following:
There shall be filed, with such petition, a bond in the sum of not less than fifty dollars per mile, payable to the state of Missouri, signed by one or more of the petitioners, with two or more good and sufficient freehold sureties, to be approved by the county commission, conditioned for the payment of all costs and expenses if the prayer of the petition be not granted or the petition be from any cause dismissed. No landowner having signed a petition for the formation of a drainage district under this chapter shall have his name stricken from such petition without the written consent of the owners of a majority of the acreage represented by those signing said petition.
§ 243.030, RSMo