BE3IEDIES AGAINST MOSQUITOES 207 



not suited to the raising of crops, and one reclaiming- failure, 

 even on that account, seems to offset many successful ones. Care 

 must be had in allowing for the subsidence of the marsh, which 

 occurs in more or less degree, depending upon the character of 

 the soil. Usually, where the marsh-lev^el is sufficiently above 

 mean low tide, reclamation can be effected without the use of ar- 

 tificial means to care for the inner water. 



The cost of maintaining effective reclamation is slight if tlior- 

 oughly done in the first instance, but otherwise, becomes expen- 

 sive and discouraging, and there are many fields once successfully 

 reclaimed but now overflowed, resulting from the attempt at sav- 

 ing a few dollars jper acre in the original work. 



While it may be argued as against reclamation that there is 

 plenty of cheap land without spending good money to obtain 

 more acreage, yet this is not the way to dispose of the fact that 

 these marshes are the prolific breeding-ground of mosquitoes, 

 and that mosquitoes — how many kinds is not ascertained — bear 

 the germs of a disease that, in its great pre valency, does more to 

 reduce the vigor, which is largely the capital, of a nation, than 

 any other disease. 



Mr. Weeks's mention in this article of the crops that 

 can be grown upon reclaimed swamp-lands reminds me 

 that Professor Milton AVhitney, Chief of the Division of 

 Soils of the United States Department of Ag-riculture, has 

 told me that the value of drained salt marsh-lands is very 

 great for meadow purposes, and that when well drained, 

 so as to prevent any danger of seepage waters coming 

 near the surface, they are valuable for truck crops, if 

 situated within easy reach of markets. 



In the work wdiich w^as done by the Richmond County 

 Club of Pongan Hills, Staten Island, under the leader- 



