The state department of social welfare is hereby authorized, empowered and directed to establish, construct and equip a tuberculosis hospital with a capacity of approximately seventy-five (75) beds on a tract of land located within that area of southeast Kansas composed of counties of Cherokee, Crawford, Bourbon, Neosho, Labette, Montgomery, Wilson, Woodson and Allen. The selection of said tract of land and the location of said hospital upon said tract of land shall be determined in the manner hereinafter provided.