COST OF DRAINAGE WORK 401 



belonging to the cities of Elizabeth and Newark were drained at the expense of 

 the cities, and, in 1906, systematic drainage work was begun on the Hackensack 

 marshes and continued along the shores of Middlesex and Monmouth counties, 

 along both shores of the Earitan River, and along the numerous small rivers and 

 creeks running into the Newark and Earitan bays and into the Arthur Kill. 



During the year 1906, and in the preceding experimental work 4900 acres 

 of marsh land were drained and 710,000 feet of ditches were put in. During 

 the season of 1907, 10,951 acres of territory were cleaned up and 1,505,524 feet 

 of ditching was put in. During the season of 1908, 6669 acres of marsh land 

 were dealt with, and 888,650 feet of ditching was made. Out of the 1909 ap- 

 propriation 2672 acres of marsh were drained with 329,800 feet of ditching. 

 This gives a grand total of 25,192 acres of marsh land, and 3,633,974 feet of 

 ditches. The drained area extends from the Hackensack at Secaucus to the 

 mouth of Toms Eiver on Barnegat Bay, a distance of nearly 70 miles of shore 

 line. 



In addition there are about 10 miles on Long Beach in which experimental 

 work was done among the sand hills, in the pockets where the marsh mosquitoes 

 bred whenever there was a storm or a storm tide to fill them. Here no ditches 

 could be made because the layer of turf was very thin and below it was sand. Nor 

 could outlets be obtained to tide water without the expenditure of disproportion- 

 ately large sums. The smaller depressions were filled with brush held in place by 

 a layer of sand, and this served to gather and hold the blowing sand in high 

 winds, causing a complete filling after a year or two. Ditches were dug and the 

 larger depressions were drained to a center, where a pond varying from 6 to 15 

 feet square was dug three or four feet deep and a large barrel sunk into the 

 center. This brought the level below that of the bay and kept water permanently 

 present : in fact there was an appreciable rise and fall of water with the tides and 

 the water drained naturally to these low points. The ponds were then stocked 

 with killies {Fundulus sp.). Some of these pools are now three years old and 

 the fish have multiplied. Altogether this plan has worked well and required 

 little looking after. 



As to the amount expended up to the end of 1910, that under the State ap- 

 propriations totaled $58,500. About $10,000 has been spent in addition by 

 various municipalities and probably $75,000 would cover what has been spent 

 in the entire marsh-mosquito work in New Jersey. This includes also the cost 

 of administration since 1905. 



The estimated cost for the total salt-marsh work in the State was $350,000 

 and up to date the proportionate cost of the work actually done is within the 

 amount estimated for the whole. 



The work has been largely original in its character, from the beginning of 

 the observations upon the habits of the insects, through the development of 

 special machinery and the ascertaining of the important fact that this simple 

 and very rapid and economic form of drainage meets the requirement by stop- 

 ping the breeding of these annoying insects. One of the writers (Dr. Howard) 



