Proceedings of Seventh Annual Meeting 55 



Union County 



William H. Randolph, Rahway, N. J. 



Union County is one of the counties which have done work since 

 1912, so that its methods and work. are a continuation of those of 

 previous years, which have been covered in detail at previous con- 

 ventions. Hence only a brief summary will be given here. 



The county is in the metropolitan area, close to New York and 

 as is the case in most other counties near New York, the Commis- 

 sion must deal with the fast growing population. Such a condition 

 causes towns to grow without proper sewage systems, and causes 

 salt-marsh areas to be built upon by new manufacturing plants, etc., 

 resulting in the blockage of the drainage systems established. How- 

 ever, the commission is getting the intelligent interest and cooperation 

 of practically all the people and organizations of the county and is 

 able to get effective results through this cooperation. The area of 

 the county consists of about 4,000 acres of salt marsh and about 

 ICQ square miles of upland. Mosquito-control work is being car- 

 ried on over this area and against all varieties of mosquitoes. The 

 open season in the early part of 1919 allowed outside work to be 

 carried on throughout practically the entire winter — drainage gangs 

 were kept on this outside work on the ditching of the series of four 

 swamps lying along the head waters of the Elizabeth River and com- 

 prising about 300 acres of fresh-water swamp. This work has not 

 yet been completed but will be continued during the coming year, 

 and it is hoped that the complete elimination of this large breeding 

 area, which is surrounded by populous communities, will result. 



The cleaning and grading of about 42 miles of ditches inland was 

 completed early in 191 9. This maintenance work is a regular part 

 of our inland drainage each year, and it is necessary to maintain the 

 drainage of approximately 2,000 swamps which have been drained 

 on the upland of the county. The commission also cleaned about 

 350,000 feet of salt-marsh ditching during the year, or about one- 

 third of the total ditching on the salt marshes. 



We have been able to eliminate our yard inspections during the 

 past year entirely, as we have found the residents of the county 

 cooperating so fully in getting rid of the ordinary back-yard breeding 

 places such as rain-barrels, tubs, cans, etc., that this source of 

 mosquito breeding is no longer of any importance. We have been 



