§ 43. Exchange of property. In order to facilitate the acquisition of
property as defined in this article, and which, in the judgment of the
corporation, will be in the public interest and necessary for canal
purposes, payment for such property may be made by means of an exchange
therefor of property found to be no longer necessary or useful as a part
of the barge canal system, or as an aid to navigation thereon, or for
barge canal terminal purposes. The property to be so acquired shall be
of at least equal value to that of such property to be exchanged. The
corporation is authorized and empowered to enter into an agreement with
the owner or owners of such property to be so acquired, upon such terms
and conditions as to such corporation shall seem appropriate and proper
to accomplish such purpose.

In all such cases, the property so to be exchanged shall first be
declared abandoned by official order of the corporation which order
shall set forth the benefits to be obtained by such exchange. In such
abandonment it shall be unnecessary to conform to the provisions for
abandonment made in section fifty-one of this chapter. The agreement and
the title to the property to be acquired shall be subject to the
approval of the attorney-general. Upon the approval of title by the
attorney-general, the corporation is authorized and empowered to execute
in the name of the people of the state of New York, a quit-claim deed to
effectuate such exchange, which shall be subject to the approval of the
attorney-general. The deed so executed, before becoming effective, shall
be recorded in the office of the secretary of state. Compensation on
account of excess value if any, of the lands so acquired shall be
adjusted and paid in the manner provided by section forty of this
article, as in the case of property taken by appropriation.