REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 451 



goes on. Every part of the territory that we have marked is not bad. There 

 are some places where there is no breeding. But the whole territory is so bad 

 in general that only a comprehensive scheme of straight ditching will suffice. 

 As most of the water is surface water, there not being many holes, close ditch- 

 ing is not necessary to drain, and we have therefore mapped the ditches 120 

 feet apart. 



(4) In territory D the situation is different. Here there is practically no 

 surface water. Breeding goes on in holes that vary from one to fifteen feet 

 in diameter. Outside of the holes the ground is dry and solid. In order to 

 be certain that every hole will be drained, the ditches must be close enough to 

 drain all intervening territory. We have therefore mapped ditches 60 feet 

 apart. 



(5) The soil here is of the same nature as that of the South and Perth 

 Ambov territory. 



CHARLES WAGNER, 

 JOHN MELLOR. 



/;. THE RAHWAY PROBLEM. 



This practically inclncles the territory from IMorse's Creek to 

 Carteret and along- the Kill to the heginning of the Amboy ter- 

 ritory. It was covered in part, along the Rahway River, by Mr. 

 E. Brehme in 1903; Mr. H. H. Brehme went over the marsh 

 section between Morse's Creek and the Rahway River in 1903 

 and 1904, and in the latter year also covered the river marshes. 

 Mr. Grossbeck explored the stretch between the Rahway River 

 and Perth Amboy. The followinp- accoimt combines the various 

 reports made. 



The meadow south of Morse's Creek is high and solid, and 

 there are few holes in it. Almost the entire stretch to Tremley 

 Point is used for growing salt hay which is cut by machine, the 

 horses not even requiring- meadow-shoes to prevent them from 

 sinking or cutting into the sod. 



Nevertheless, mosquitoes breed on these meadows in consid- 

 erable numbers ; but the bad places are all close to the highlands 

 and often in choked up ditches where fish cannot enter. There 

 are several ditches close to the highland and if these were cleaned 

 out to Morse's Creek they would be sufficient to take the narrow 

 ditches necessary to drain the breeding places. These ditches 

 would not have to be very long nor very numerous and they 

 would carry the killies that simply swarm in the creek to the low 

 breeding pools that might not be completely drained ; live water 

 with fish would be substituted for stagnant pools with wrigglers. 



A similar condition of affairs exists on the east side of the 

 New York and Long Branch Railroad. There are plenty of de- 

 veloping mosquitoes, but most of the places are found close to 

 the high ground. Here also there are a number of old ditches 

 choked with grass and weeds, useless for purposes of drainage : 



