52 PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL WORK AGAINST MOSQUITOES. 



During the year 1906, and in the preceding experimental work, 

 4,900 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 were put in. During 

 the season of 1908, 6,669 acres of marsh land were dealt with and 

 888,650 feet of ditching was made. Out of the 1909 appropriation 

 2,672 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 area extends from the Hackensack at Secaucus to the mouth 

 of Toms Kiver 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 tidewater without the expenditure of 

 disproportionately 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. The 

 larger depressions were drained to a center where a pond varying 

 from 6 to 15 feet square was dug 3 or 4 feet deep and a large barrel 

 sunk into the center. This brought the line down below the level 

 of the bay and kept water permanently present; in fact, there was 

 an appreciable rise and fall of water with the tides, and it gave 

 outlet to all the water that drained naturally to these low points. 

 Ditches were dug along the natural drainage lines to these ponds, 

 and the latter 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, the state appropriations make a total 

 of $58,500. About $10,000 has been spent by various municipalities, 

 and probably $75,000 would cover what has been spent in marsh- 

 mosquito work in New Jersey, counting in the local improvements 

 made. This includes also the cost of administration since 1905. 



The total estimated cost of the marsh work in the State is $350,000, 

 and up to date the cost of the work actually done is within the 

 amount estimated for that work. 



The work has been entirely original in its character, from the 

 beginning of the observations upon the most unexpected habits of the 

 insects, through the development of special machinery, and the ascer- 

 taining of the important fact that this simple and very rapid and 

 economic form of drainage meets the important requirement of 

 stopping the breeding of these extremely annoying migratory forms. 



