NATIONAL DRAINAGE CONGRESS 



"T 1 HE second Annual Meeting of the 

 * National Drainage Association 

 was held in Baltimore November 25, 

 26, and 27 last. Its object was to pro- 

 mote National reclamation of lands in 

 all the States, now worthless or worse, 

 because partly or wholly covered by 

 water. 



Mr. J. S. Mundy, of Newark, New 

 Jersey, spoke of the great value of 

 swamp mud as a fertilizer. "One 

 thing," he said, "which keeps the far- 

 mers of North Carolina poor is their 

 bills for fertilizer, one man having 

 paid last year $2,800 for fertilizer." 

 Said he : "You don't have to fertilize 

 swamp lands. Up in New Jersey there 

 are two plants that dish off the soil 

 from the swamps and, after drying, it 

 is put in machines, from which it 

 comes like powder. It is shipped away 

 and sold at from $16 to $20 a ton, and 

 it costs $5 an acre. The best lands in 

 the United States are under water, or 

 partially so. The hills have been cul- 

 tivated until there is nothing more to 

 them. Near the farmers, for a cost of 

 about $100 for drainage, arc lands 

 where they can raise more corn to one 

 acre than to twenty in the hills. Look 

 at the Mississippi river bottoms, which 

 are practically inexhaustible ! The 

 swamp lands, when they are drained. 

 are the same way." 



Col. James Cosgrove, member of 

 the South Carolina legislature, and 

 the "Apostle of Drainage in the 

 South," spoke on the vast benefits re- 

 sulting to the public health from drain- 

 age. He said. "For centuries it ha- 

 been believed that no white man could 

 live in the summer months in the 

 swamp lands of Carolina, without con- 

 tracting malaria. So firm was this be- 

 lief that, on the first approach of hot 

 weather, the farms were abandoned 

 by most of the owners, who did not 

 return until fro-t. Tho^e who re- 

 mained were bound to 'catch the fever' 

 : with the result that thcv and 

 their familie- became invalid^ for a 

 great part of the year, an.l their off- 



ing greu to manhood and woman- 

 hood handicapped with disease that 

 unfitted them to befome industrious 

 and useful citizens. You have had the 

 Same experience wherever wet lai' 

 are located, and New Jersey, Illin' 

 and North Dakota have no advantage 

 over North Carolina in this respect. 

 Some five years age we commenced to 

 work for drainage for health in Char- 

 leston County, and I have the honor of 

 directing that work." 



The speaker then told of the mil- 

 lions of mosquitoes which infested the 

 swamps and bore malarial germs, and 

 how drainage of the swamps enorm- 

 ously lessened the numbers of mos- 

 quitoes, and replaced the dark marsh- 

 es with green fields and firm ground, 

 and made homes for thousands. This 

 work, he insisted, was the duty of the 

 National Government. Professor A. 

 E. Ay res, of New York, a leader in 

 the movement for exterminating mos- 

 quitoes, gave an illustrated lecture on 

 this subject. He named five di- 

 particularly yellow fever and malaria, 

 which are transmitted by mosquitoe-. 

 He said, "The extermination of the 

 disease-breeding mos ( |uit'> is not no\\- 

 a sanitary problem but a political 

 use." Col. C. P. Goodyear, of I'.runs- 

 wick, Georgia, declared that "a war 

 against the mosquito -hould enlist 

 every patriotic American citizen." 



New Jersey mosquitoes are com- 

 monly supposed to hold the record. 

 Professor John 1'.. Smith. Kntomolo- 

 gist of the New Jersey V_;ricultural 

 K\1>eriinent Station, lectured on the 

 drainage of the s a lt marshes of that 

 State, using stereopticon s]j,ies. He 

 said that in NVv. \ there are more 



than 296,000 acres of tidal marsh, a 

 large percentage of it being waste 

 land, producing nothing, much of it 

 untaxed. and some lownshii <-ly 



made up of salt niar-h. so s]j m l v - 

 tied that it is difficult to find men to 

 fill public office- He said, "We start- 

 ed in to exterminate the salt marsh 

 nios<|uito. but incidentally we are in- 



