June, '14] HEADLEE: AXTI-MOSQUITO WORK IN NEW JERSEY 263 



tain themselves for two or three years. In this way all the water 

 containing parts of the marsh are open to the fish or laid dry at low 

 tide and breeding cannot occur. 



In this way the salt marsh from Jersey City to Barnegat on Barne- 

 gat Bay, with the exception of certain parts of the Hackensack marshes, 

 recently found breeding, have been rendered practically free from 

 mosquito breeding. The state has cut most of the ditches. Much 

 of this drainage is now being cared for and extended by the 

 counties and the writer hopes in the near future to have all of it 

 so handled. 



The results of this drainage have been little short of marvelous. 

 Shore properties which at certain seasons of the year were uninhabit- 

 able are now delightful summer resorts. From Jersey City to Rumson 

 shore, property has increased five and a half million dollars and the 

 greatest percentage of increase has taken place in the purely residen- 

 tial divstricts. In one instance the increase amounted to 300 per cent. 



A very natural but rather unexpected result of the drainage was 

 a marked increase in the [yield of salt marsh hay. Fairly careful 

 estimates show that the marsh which is drained three years or more 

 yields 2.6 tons per acre as compared with .7 of a ton from the un- 

 drained marsh. As this hay is worth $8 a ton the drained marsh 

 makes a yield worth consideration. 



About 60,500 acres have already been ditched and 139,500 acres 

 3'et remain. The average cost of ditching does not exceed $5. 

 Fairly careful estimates indicate that the completion of this drainage 

 would in short time increase taxable property values by at least 

 $26,000,000. 



The Atlantic Coast of New Jersey is fitted by nature to become 

 the playground of the East and to the end that it maj'^'becdme so the 

 mosquito must go. 



Doctor Smith tried several t^'^pes of organization before he hit 

 upon the one under which most of the salt marsh drainage has been 

 carried on. First a law was enacted (1904) declaring a mosquito- 

 breeding place a nuisance and making it the duty of local boards of 

 health to cause its abatement. Then a law was enacted making 

 state funds available to municipalities which desired to abate salt 

 marsh mosquito-breeding places, providing the municipalities would 

 themselves contribute a heavy percentage of the cost of abatement. 

 Finding that neither of these laws brought about satisfactory progress, 

 he secured the passage of chapter 134, Laws of 1906, in which the 

 director of the New Jersey State Agricultural Experiment Station 

 was charged with the duty of causing the abatement of salt marsh 

 breeding places acting through the authority of local boards of health 



