THE VALUE OF EECLAIMED LANDS. 61 



cut from the area west of the Central Railroad . Where as much as 5,000 tons had once 

 been harvested, less than a thousand tons were harvested in 1903. In 1906 ditches 

 were cut in the southeastern section of the meadow in the course of the mosquito 

 work, and an area on which hip boots were needed in that year can now be safely 

 traveled dry shod. Where we found sedge and useless grasses over two-thirds of the 

 area in 1905, on that same proportion we now have good salt and black grass. In 

 another year, if the ditches are not interfered with, the sedge will be practically out. 

 The balance of the area was ditched early in 1907, all the work being-completed early 

 in July. Shallow depressions that have been water covered and mosquito breeders 

 for twenty years are now dry and covered with the salt-marsh flea-bane. The grass 

 which was ten to twelve inches high last year is now twenty to twenty-eight inches 

 high and much more dense. For the first time in nearly twenty years hay is being 

 again cut in areas west of the railroad and in the area between Great Island, Elizabeth- 

 port and the Central Railroad. 



In draining the Shrewsbury River marshes in 1904, the same sort of opposition from 

 hay producers was encountered that we met on the Newark marshes, and it was objected 

 that the ditches cut up the land and made work harder. Nevertheless, the work was 

 done and the result is a crop just double — mostly from longer, thicker grass. Before 

 1904, two tons per acre was considered a good crop; now, good and bad together, it 

 averages four tons, and local conditions furnish a market that pays $10 per ton. 



In his annual report for the year 1908, Doctor Smith states that his 

 investigations showed that a very small part of the salt-marsh area 

 produces as great a crop as it should, and that what is produced 

 does not bring as good a price as it should. The market for salt hay 

 is slight, due in part to the character of the crop and partly to the uses 

 to which it is put. Since the crop is not certain it can not be relied 

 upon, and the price varies with the size of the harvest. Salt hay is 

 used largely for packing, and the amount demanded depends upon 

 business conditions. In 1907 there was a very large crop of hay, but 

 there was a business depression at the same time which brought about 

 so low a price as to scarcely repay harvesting. He shows that salt 

 hay is altogether too valuable to be used for packing material alone, 

 and that if an annual crop could be expected it could be used to sup- 

 plement upland hay in feeding horses and cattle. The drainage 

 work done by Doctor Smith under the state mosquito law will put 

 the meadows into such shape that the amount of hay produced will 

 be increased without increase of cost except in harvesting, and will 

 enable the production of dependable crops. He states that on July 

 21, 1908, he had the opportunity of seeing, at Stratford, Conn., an 

 area of about 1,500 acres of salt marsh drained and partly diked and 

 reclaimed. The largest part of the acreage was devoted to raising 

 salt hay of the best quality, for which good prices were received. On 

 the diked marsh 100 acres had been kept free from salt water since 

 1904. On this territory strawberries, asparagus, onions, and celery 

 were being raised, and, while the asparagus was not of the best quality 

 and the strawberry plants were in no way unusual, the onions and 

 celery were of the best — in fact the celery was so good that most of 



