COST OF DRAINAGE WORK 401 
belonging to the cities of Elizabeth and Newark were drained at the expense of 
the cities, and, in 1906, systematic drainage work was begun on the Hackensack 
marshes and continued along the shores of Middlesex and Monmouth counties. 
along both shores of the Raritan River, and along the numerous small rivers and 
creeks running into the Newark and Raritan bays and into the Arthur Kill. 
During the year 1906, and in the preceding experimental work 4900 acres 
of marsh land were drained and 710,000 feet of ditches were put in. During 
the season of 1907, 10,951 acres of territory were cleaned up and 1,505,524 feet 
of ditching was put in. During the season of 1908, 6669 acres of marsh land 
were dealt with, and 888,650 feet of ditching was made. Out of the 1909 ap- 
propriation 2672 acres of marsh were drained with 329,800 feet of ditching. 
This gives a grand total of 25,192 acres of marsh land, and 3,633,974 feet of 
ditches. The drained area extends from the Hackensack at Secaucus to the 
mouth of Toms River on Barnegat Bay, a distance of nearly 70 miles of shore 
line. 
In addition there are about 10 miles on Long Beach in which experimental 
work was done among the sand hills, in the pockets where the marsh mosquitoes 
bred whenever there was a storm or a storm tide to fill them. Here no ditches 
could be made because the layer of turf was very thin and below it was sand. Nor 
could outlets be obtained to tide water without the expenditure of disproportion- 
ately large sums. The smaller depressions were filled with brush held in place by 
a layer of sand, and this served to gather and hold the blowing sand in high 
winds, causing a complete filling after a year or two. Ditches were dug and the 
larger depressions were drained to a center, where a pond varying from 6 to 15 
feet square was dug three or four feet deep and a large barrel sunk into the 
center. This brought the level below that of the bay and kept water permanently 
present: in fact there was an appreciable rise and fall of water with the tides and 
the water drained naturally to these low points. The ponds were then stocked 
with killies (Fundulus sp.). Some of these pools are now three years old and 
the fish have multiplied. Altogether this plan has worked well and required 
little looking after. 
As to the amount expended up to the end of 1910, that under the State ap- 
propriations totaled $58,500. About $10,000 has been spent in addition by 
various municipalities and probably $75,000 would cover what has been spent 
in the entire marsh-mosquito work in New Jersey. This includes also the cost 
of administration since 1905. 
The estimated cost for the total salt-marsh work in the State was $350,000 
and up to date the proportionate cost of the work actually done is within the 
amount estimated for the whole. 
The work has been largely original in its character, from the beginning of 
the observations upon the habits of the insects, through the development of 
special machinery and the ascertaining of the important fact that this simple 
and very rapid and economic form of drainage meets the requirement by stop- 
ping the breeding of these annoying insects. One of the writers (Dr. Howard) 
