Proce:kdings Fii^th Annuai. Me^eting 47 



ditch, but this will not remove the soft silt which is often held in 

 suspension in the water. This silt at low tide is deposited in the 

 bottom of the ditch, but is even then very loose and runs out of 

 the scoop. 



The building of a cleaning machine is absolutely essential to 

 the success of salt-marsh drainage. The machine must be cap- 

 able of averaging eight to ten thousand feet of cleaned ditch 

 daily, and this makes speed and the elimination of delays in mov- 

 ing imperative. The caterpillar tractor of special design will 

 probably be the solution, and the same features necessary in the 

 ditching tractor will be necessary in the cleaning machine. The 

 power needed, however, will not be as great, and the tractor can 

 be made light in weight without difficulty. The same provision 

 of drum and cable for pulling the cleaner through these salt 

 holes, which are often found filled in to within a few inches of 

 the meadow surface, will be found necessary. Thy cannot be 

 cleaned out by the hand method when the thousands of salt holes 

 are considered. 



I believe that the next few years will see the development of 

 both the ditching machine and the cleaning machine; that the 

 cost of both will be materially reduced, and that by means of the 

 reduced cost the work can be extended to include the entire 

 eastern coast. In the meantime, with the machinery now avail- 

 able, good progress is being made and will insure success in New 

 Jersey. 



PrKSid:^nt Brinkerhofi? — The next paper is ''Status of Mos- 

 quito Control in New Jersey," by Mr. Robert F. Engle, Presi- 

 dent of the Ocean County Mosquito Extermination Commission, 

 Beach Haven. 



