MODERN METHODS OF STREET CLEANING 



the refuse from the streets and houses was emptied 

 into the harbor also. These customs have, with the 

 growth of population and the adoption of higher aesthetic 

 standards, come to be regarded as insanitary. There 

 is now* a municipal commission, of which the author 

 has the honor to be chairman, charged with the duty of 

 making a careful investigation of the sanitary condition 

 of the waters of New York and vicinity and formulating 

 a general plan or policy of conservancy. So far as the 

 disposition of the solid refuse collected from the streets 

 and houses is concerned, the tidal waters of New York 

 and vicinity are important only as they afford cheap 

 and convenient means of transportation by boats. It 

 is with these wastes alone that this chapter has to deal. 

 The solid refuse which is produced in the city of 

 New York is disposed of chiefly by an executive divi- 

 sion of the city government called the Street Cleaning 

 Department. This department exercises jurisdiction 

 over three of the five boroughs into which the city is 

 divided. These three boroughs contain about four- 

 fifths of the total population, or 3,956,905 people, and 

 about one-half of the total area, or 140 square miles. 

 The two boroughs of New York which are not under 

 the care of the Street Cleaning Department are cleansed 

 by separate bureaus under the borough presidents. The 

 borough presidents are elected by the people and in 

 turn appoint superintendents of the bureaus of street 

 cleaning. The methods of work are practically the 

 same as those followed by the Department of Street 

 Cleaning and will not be separately referred to in this 

 paper. Table I gives the areas, population, and lengths 

 and areas of streets in the five boroughs of New York: 



* 1908. 



162 



