57 



hensive manner. The result was that eight * thousand dollars 

 was subscribed principally by the property owners of the Rumson 

 Road, and a contract was made with the United States Drainage 

 and Irrigation Company who guaranteed that they would ex- 

 terminate completely all salt-marsh mosquitoes in an area four 

 miles equidistant from the Little Silver Station. This work 

 was completed by the United States Drainage and Irrigation 

 Company in the fall of 19 14. The Rumson Improvement Asso- 

 ciation paid eight thousand dollars for digging 246,822 linear 

 feet of ditching; seven hundred dollars to maintain the work 

 in 1914; and twelve hundred dollars for 1915, and all subse- 

 quent years, for ten years thereafter, with a limitation how- 

 ever, included in the contract, that if, for any reason whatsoever 

 the property owners should see fit to abrogate the contract, 

 they could do so by sixty days' notification. After the ditches 

 were dug, Mr. Charles S. Beck with, assistant to the Entomolo- 

 gist of the New Jersey Agricultural Station at New Brunswick, 

 made a four weeks' investigation of the United States Drainage 

 and Irrigation Company's, work and reported the following: 



1. That the drainage work was well done and the mosquito 

 places nearly eliminated. 



2. That the total number of feet of ditches in the territory 

 amounts to 246,822, which, at $8,000, makes the price per linear 

 foot about 3.2 cts. The average price is about 2.5 cts. per foot, 

 but the scattered character of this marsh must have made its 

 ditching more expensive in consequence. 



3. That the marshes are now free from breeding pools and 

 all ordinary breeding in the grass except local places on Swim- 

 ming River. Swimming River is west of Red Bank. 



Mr. Beckwith stated that he saw no reason why the territory 

 on the Navesink (North Shrewsbury) and South Shrewsbury 

 Rivers should not be entirely free from salt-marsh mosquitoes 

 in the future. 



Unfortunately, the maintenance work during the summer of 

 191 5 was not satisfactory, the result of which being that a num- 

 ber of broods were permitted to emerge during the months of 

 July, August and September, causing more or less discomfort 



