IO 



This system of open ditching has not accomplished all that 

 was expected of it. In some places it has proved effective 

 throughout the summer, but far too often a combination of 

 heavy rains and high tides has prevented the ditches from drain- 

 ing the meadows quickly enough to prevent a brood of mos- 

 quitoes from reaching the adult or winged state. 



During the summer of 1914 the methods of the Dutch were, 

 tried in an experimental way in Hudson and Essex Counties with 

 very gratifying results. It was the beginning of the end. There 

 is no longer any question as to how to get rid of salt-marsh 

 mosquitoes. Centuries ago the Dutch solved the problem of 

 draining lands which were lower than the sea. They used the 

 ditches to collect the water, but they surrounded the low land 

 with a system of dikes to keep out the high tides, and it is by 

 adopting their methods of using dikes as well as ditches that 

 the salt-marsh areas of New Jersey can be effectively drained. 



In addition to the ditching, the meadows must be protected 

 from overflow at hig*h tides by surrounding them, on all exposed 

 sides with dikes or levees, and then allowing the water in the 

 ditches to run out at low tide through sluiceways protected 

 with tide-gates, or by pumping. 



The first experiment with dikes and tide-gates in Essex County 

 in August, 1 9 14, showed the efficiency of this method. The 

 worst mosquito-breeding marsh in the county, an area of about 

 300 acres, a mile and a half south of the corner of Broad and 

 Market Streets, Newark, was surrounded by a low mud wall. . 

 The water was allowed to run out into the creeks at low tide 

 through sluiceways, but the tide-gates acted like "check valves" 

 and prevented its return at high tides. - 



The result was that a tract of salt marsh that had always 

 been dangerous to cross even with hip boots, dried off so com- 

 pletely within a. month that even overshoes were not needed 

 in walking over it. 



The result warranted the treatment of other areas in a similar 

 way, and by the end of 191 5, Essex and Union counties had 

 all the area west of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, between 

 Newark and Elizaibethport, drained in this way. 



