RECLAMATION OF TIDE LANDS. 377 



markets for sale earl}' in the season. The products are of good 

 quality, the business is proving profitable, and the area is being con- 

 tinually' extended. There are, however, as yet many unsettled 

 questions connected with this kind of agriculture. The best methods 

 of growing crops, and the varieties of crops best suited to these con- 

 ditions are not as yet determined, but this is being systematically 

 investigated by the Bureau of Plant Industry of this Department. 

 The requirements of drainage, the depth to which the water level 

 must be lowered and kept, and the kind of devices or machines 

 needed for this work are being studied by the Office of Experiment 

 Stations as a part of its drainage investigation. 



DRAINAGE IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. 



The most notable example of the reclamation of salt marshes is 

 furnished by the Netherlands. Here the work has been carried on 

 for centuries, during which a large part of Holland has been wrested 

 from the sea. Lands no more fertile than the marshes of this country 

 now support a population of 450 to the square mile, while the density 

 of population in New Jersey is but 250 and that of New York 153. 

 These figures show the possibilities of salt marshes in the climate of 

 the North Atlantic States. Equally encouraging evidence of the 

 value of the marsh lands of the South Atlantic seaboard is furnished 

 by the results of draining the low lands of Italy along the Adriatic 

 Sea. This work was begun in a systematic way in 1882. Before 

 that time the cost of constructing efficient drainage works was beyond 

 the unaided financial resources of individuals or communities. 

 Agricultural progress was practically at a standstill; the health of 

 the population was menaced b}^ malarial conditions and depopula- 

 tion of some districts was threatened. Foreseeing this danger the 

 Italian Government, after a thorough, detailed study, passed a com- 

 prehensive drainage law providing for the organization of districts 

 and for financial aid from the General Government and from the 

 provinces. As a result of this work many thousand acres of land 

 have been reclaimed and is now growing liigh-priced crops. Land 

 values have been largely increased, and some of the drained districts 

 now have a population of between 400 and 500 to the square mile. 



INFLUENCE OF DRAINING TIDE MARSHES ON PUBLIC HEALTH. 



Along some parts of the coast of Long Island and New Jersey efforts 

 have been made to drain the marsh lands as a means of ridding neigh- 

 borhoods of mosquitoes, and have been partially successful; but with- 

 out a general effort and the drainage of all the marshes in a certain 

 locality the best results can not be secured. A most successful 

 example of the effect of drainage on health conditions is to be seen 



