Proceedings of Seventh Annual Meeting 129 



spent in the making of great dams for the holding back of water 

 which can be used in irrigation. Those reclamation projects are 

 not a success until you can bring in the experienced agricultural 

 laborer. We can accomplish this first step for a comparatively 

 small sum — at our present prices it will take about $900,000 over 

 and above what the counties are furnishing to finish the drainage of 

 the salt marsh. 



Mr. Miller: Why not do it in one year instead of five? 



Secretary Headlee: We could do it in one year if we were 

 given time to create the organization, but money would be certain to 

 be wasted where time is so limited. Time is required to create an 

 efficient organization. This is why the plan of work covers a five- 

 year period instead of a shorter time. 



Mr. Miller: What assurance have we that the first year's work 

 won't have to be done all over again by the fifth year? 



Secretar.y Headlee: Well, this is the assurance, Mr. Miller. 

 With the exception of a very small area in Cumberland County, 

 which has never been attended to since the work was done, there has 

 not been a rod of well dug ditch or an acre of well drained marsh 

 that has been allowed to go back since 1906. We have in our mos- 

 quito commissions the power and the willingness to take care of these 

 improvem.ents as they are made. The plan involves enough addi- 

 tional money from the State of New Jersey to enable us to finish in 

 a period of ' five years the drainage of the marsh. We do not ask . 

 one cent of state money for maintenance. We have never needed one 

 cent of state money for maintenance after the county commissions 

 were started. The local people with the present organization are in 

 a position to take care of this work as soon as it is done, and they 

 will do it. All we want from the state or from any other source is a 

 sum of money sufficient to put with the county eflPort to finish the 

 drainage in five years. 



Mr. Jackson: Mr. President, Mr. Miller suggests that we raise 

 a million dollars, and do the work at once. The question naturally 

 arises, where is this money to come from ? As it was represented to 

 us last year, it must come either from a bond issue or else from 

 funds that are raised from revenues of the state, and a bond issue 

 means submitting the matter to public vote. Suppose that it should 

 be submitted to public vote, do you imagine that it would carry 

 throughout the state, for the drainage of the salt marshes alone? 

 Under a bond issue there are a number of counties that would be 



