336 MOSQUITOES OF NqrtH AMERICA 



art of agriculture is adduced, showing the good results in that field, and yet it 

 fails to silence opposers. Besides mentioning the remarkably heavy crops of 

 hay, much preferred by his horses to the best from the uplands, also the excellent 

 crops of strawberries and vegetables raised in these lands, one such qualified 

 observer gives his experience as to asparagus in such convincing words that they 

 are quoted in full : ' While visiting the Marshfield Meadows on April 19, 1897, 

 I found asparagus already up, very nearly high enough to cut. I was surprised 

 at this, for my own asparagus had just appeared above the surface of the ground, 

 although growing on land so warm that I am usually first to ship native aspara- 

 gus to Boston market. I was also surprised at the size of the stalks, they being 

 much larger than the first set of stalks that appear on my land. When I consider 

 the fact that the land on which this asparagus was growing has produced large 

 crops every year for twenty years without fertilizers of any kind, and still pro- 

 duces better crops than my land, which has had $600 worth of fertilizers to the 

 acre applied to it during the last twenty years, it convinces me that this land, for 

 garden purposes, surpasses any which I have ever examined. . . . 



" ' We realize, in a measure, the great value of the material which nature has 

 for ages been storing up for man's future use, if he be wise enough to avail him- 

 self of it.' 



" The drainage work done by other countries has given many practical ex- 

 amples of beneficial results from the mosquito standpoint, and from other points 

 of view as well. The details have very recently become available, through the 

 kindness of the United States consul at Milan, Italy, of very extensive drainage 

 operations carried on near Milan, which involved the reclamation of nearly 

 80,000 acres of land. These details may be found in the Scientific American 

 Supplement No. 1637, May 18, 1907, pages 26233 to 26235. The work cost 

 $3,200,000, and the annual cost of operation is estimated at $16,000. The 

 beneficial results are summarized as follows : 



" ' 1. In both Mantua and Reggio this tract, comprising 77,867 acres, culti- 

 vable only for a sparse crop of poor hay and, on account of the vapors arising 

 from its stagnant swamps, dangerous for pasturage during practically all the 

 year, has been made cultivable, in one year, for wheat, grapes, fruits, and hay, 

 and rendered good for cutting into farms on which people can erect homes in 

 safety. 



" ' 2. The market values, not only on the 78,000-acre tract but on all con- 

 tiguous territory, even to the outer bounds of the affected provinces, have leaped 

 to figures equal to two or three times those prevailing before the opening of the 

 Bonifica,, i. e., from $120 to $250 or $300 per acre. 



" ' 3. Farm labor, which formerly expressly avoided these provinces, and made 

 difficult the harvesting of the extensive crops, has been attracted there by the 

 changed conditions; while on account of the demand created by the active de- 

 velopment of the drained tract, wages have not been knocked down by the plenti- 

 tude of supply. 



" ' 4. Live-stock maladies are under better control. 



5. The public health has been afforded a sure and scientific protection.' 



II c 



"SALT MARSH LANDS IN NEW JERSEY. 



" So much work has already been done in New Jersey that, as repeatedly 

 pointed out in this work, the value of the operations already carried on in that 

 State is very great, if only as an indication of what can be and should be done 

 elsewhere. The whole question of the New Jersey salt marsh and its improve- 

 ment has been considered by Dr. John B. Smith in Bulletin No. 207 of the New 

 Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. In this work he gives a consideration 

 of the location of the salt-marsh area, the kinds of salt marsh, the vegetation on 



