396 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



drainage laws enacted by the several States. In both Nova Scotia 

 and New Bru-nswick, where diking is so extensively employed, they 

 have complete statutes providing for their construction and main- 

 tenance, and no material progress need be expected in this country 

 until we have such laws enacted. 



Since our eastern coast has become so thickly populated, any State 

 has, under its police regulations, the power to declare this mosquito- 

 breeding marsh a nuisance and a menace to the public health and 

 compel their abatement, thereby bestowing upon the owners a bless- 

 ing that they have so long and so persistently refused to accept. 



Any State law that would provide for the formation of a district 

 comprising a marsh or series of marshes that could be reclaimed under 

 one plan of improvement and trust the management of its affairs to 

 a board of interested landowners, would be a step in the right direc- 

 tion. Such a law should clearly define the riparian rights of the 

 owners and show the status of such improvement in its relation to 

 the navigation of streams on wliich such lands are located. It should 

 also make provision for doing the reclamation work as a whole and 

 provide for the issuance of bonds, to be a lien on the lands benefited, 

 to raise money for paying for the work as it is done. These bonds 

 should run for a long term of years at a low rate of interest and be 

 paid in annual installments by a tax on the land reclaimed in the 

 ratio that such lands are benefited by the improvement. Such a law 

 would not w^ork a hardship on the landowners and would enable 

 anyone having unimproved marsh to reclaim the same and pay tlie 

 cost out of crops to be produced after the work is completed. To 

 further encourage this work the several States should remit the State 

 and county tax on lands thus reclaimed until the cost of improvement 

 has been paid, as the benefit to the State from the increased poj)ula- 

 tion and products raised on the marshes will be of more value than 

 the land in its present condition. 



APPENDIX. 



Bill of iiKilcndlfor a tlircc-chainhcr concnte slaice </atf as shoirn In Plates XTV <ni(l .VI'. 



86 cubic yards concrete. 



20 pieces creosuted lumber, 3 by 12, 12 feel lonu:. 720 fci-l P>. M. 

 CO feet 0-p!y rul)l)er belting, 2A inches wide. 

 750 wood screws 1^ inches long. 

 255 machine bolts, i by 5 inches. 

 600 wrciuglit washers for | bt)lts. 

 45 machine IkiUs, ^ by 5i inches. 

 8 T-head anchor bolts | by 16 inches 

 3 couiiterl)alances, as shown on di'awing. 

 6 link hinges, as shown on drawing. 

 10 square yards cotton duck. 

 White lead and oakum as required 



