Proce:kdings 01^ Fifth Annuai. Me^eting 91 



New York City, will miean a wonderful development once the 

 mosquito has been banished. Much has been claimed, and justly 

 so, for the possibilities of the New Jersey coast as the pleasure 

 resort and of South Jersey as the garden spot of the Middle 

 Atlantic States. The past six years have seen an organized and 

 constantly accelerated effort to free these sections from the in- 

 cubus of the mosquito. Remarkable progress has been made. I 

 give you warning, however, that in Nassau County you now 

 have a formidable rival for these honors, and if hard work can 

 do it we expect to make up that four-year handicap and beat 

 you to the tape. 



The salt marsh constitutes in Nassau County, as it does in the 

 coast counties of New Jersey, the largest single factor in our 

 mosquito-control problem. These marsh areas fringe the entire 

 south shore of the county in a strip 17 miles long, averaging 3^ 

 miles wide and containing approximately 19,000 acres lying be- 

 tween the outside barrier beaches and the mainland Although 

 the many tide-water creeks and bays running through the marsh 

 afford excellent outlets, they also make the transportation prob- 

 lem a vexing one and necessitate the maintenance of a small 

 fleet of motor boats. The drainage of this salt marsh offers no 

 peculiar difficulties. The beach sand encountered in many places 

 only a few inches below the surface, the hydraulic fills at Long 

 Beach and elsewhere, depressions along the barrier beaches and, 

 above all, the hay cutters on the mainland areas, cause a certain 

 amount of trouble, but none of it of a very serious nature. It is 

 interesting to note that taken acre by acre the island areas are, 

 in many cases, the source of heavier breeding than is found on 

 the mainland marshes. The explanation is that although an 

 appreciable proportion of the islands are tidal and do not breed, 

 the remiainder are set well above the daily high tides and contain 

 innumerable bald areas and salt holes. 



The standard 10 by 30i-inch main ditch and an 8 by 20-inch 

 spur ditch, which is now becoming the standard size for tapping 

 salt holes, are used to drain both island and mainland areas. The 

 plan of ditching followed has no unusual features. It is neither 

 the parallel system with its large proportion of non-circulating 



