58 PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL WORK AGAINST MOSQUITOES. 



Were this 77,000,000 acres of swamp and overflowed land drained and made healthful 

 and fit for agriculture and divided into farms of 40 acres each, it would provide homes 

 for 1,925,000 families. Swamp lands, when drained, are extremely fertile, requiring 

 but little commercial fertilizer, and yield abundant crops. They are adapted to a 

 wide range of products and in most instances are convenient to good markets. While 

 an income of $15 to $20 per acre in the grain-producing States of the Middle West is 

 considered profitable, much of the swamp land in the East and South would, if 

 cultivated in cabbage, onions, celery, tomatoes, and other vegetables, yield a net 

 income of more than $100 per acre. 



In addition to the immediate benefits that accrue from the increased productiveness 

 of these lands, a greater and more lasting benefit would follow their reclamation. The 

 taxable value of the Commonwealth would be permanently increased, and health- 

 fulness of the community would be improved, mosquitoes and malaria would be 

 banished, and the construction of good roads made possible. Factories, churches, 

 and schools would open up, and instead of active young farmers from the Mississippi 

 Valley emigrating to Canada to seek cheap lands they could find better homes within 

 our own borders. 



Holland, two-fifths of which lies below the level of the sea, has been reclaimed by 

 diking and draining, and now supports a population of 450 per square mile. Her soil 

 is no better than the marshes of this country, and her climate not so good as that of , 

 the Southern States, yet we have within our border an undeveloped empire ten times 

 her area. 



There is no good reason why this condition should longer continue, and it is to be 

 hoped that the American people will soon take steps to abate this nuisance and make 

 these lands contribute to the support and upbuilding of the nation. 



In an important article by Mr. H. C. Weeks, in the Scientific 

 American Supplement for January 5, 1901, on the subject of drainage 

 work, the following interesting statements are made: 



Cases exist, however, of persons being unwilling to be convinced, and continuing 

 their opposition even after a successful reclamation, as are seen in the official records 

 of Massachusetts, while examinations by the State have shown a great improvement 

 in the sanitary and agricultural conditions. In the instance of Green Harbor, in that 

 State, it is shown that the death rate of the reclaimed district averages lower than the 

 general death rate of the State; that there is a steady increase in summer visitors, and 

 that many houses are being built. The testimony of persons of wide knowledge and 

 ample experience in the science and art of agriculture is adduced, showing the good 

 results in that field, and yet it fails to silence opposers. Besides mentioning the 

 remarkably heavy crops of hay, much preferred by his horses to the best from the 

 uplands, also the excellent crops of strawberries and vegetables raised in these lands, 

 one such qualified observer gives his experience as to asparagus in such convincing 

 words that they are quoted in full: " While visiting the Marshfield Meadows on April, 

 19, 1897, I found asparagus already up, very nearly high enough to cut. I was sur- 

 prised at this, for my own asparagus had but just appeared above the surface of the 

 ground, although growing on land so warm that I am usually first to ship native aspara- 

 gus to Boston market. I was also surprised at the size of the stalks, they being much 

 larger than the first set of stalks that appear on my land. When I consider the fact 

 that the land on which this asparagus was growing has produced large crops every 

 year for twenty years without fertilizers of any kind, and still produces better crops 

 than my land, which has had $600 worth of fertilizers to the acre applied to it during 

 the last twenty years, it convinces me that this land, for garden purposes, surpasses 

 any which I have ever examined * * *." 



We realize, in a measure, the great value of the material which nature has for ages 

 been storing up for man's future use, if he be wise enough to avail himself of it. 



