no Proceedings of Ninth Annuai, Meeting 



The result is that these ditches close up rather rapidly and have 

 to be opened. 



Relative to Mr. Reiley's statement about installing the band 

 ditch, as we call it, along the junction of the marsh and the 

 upland, and insuring in that way that the water flushes those 

 ditches, the scheme is rather a practical one and has, so far as I 

 can see, no very serious disadvantage, other than that a band 

 ditch is not an agreeable construction to the landowner. He must 

 cross the ditch to get on the meadow. Generally speaking, he 

 won't bridge it. AVhat he commonly does is to throw some sod in 

 it and drive across. I do hold that the band ditch is a very im- 

 portant consideration and that it is now being used in a good 

 many instances. 



Where you have a strong tide-fall suck, and the water flows 

 through that ditch, you have a wash-out of the soft underlying 

 mud and a dropping of the surface of the marsh next to that 

 ditch. It will not be long before the ditch deepens, so that, be- 

 ginning fifteen or more feet back of the ditch, the land sinks, and. 

 eventually, you will have a condition of the ditch that looks like 

 that (indicating). It is impractical to drive a horse anywhere 

 near that ditch, and it is pretty nearly impractical for a man to 

 step on it and get out again. 



This has actually occurred. I could show you ditches (there 

 are some on the Atlantic Coast — there are more on the Bay 

 Coast) where the tidal swell or suck is more pronounced. This, 

 of course, may be met by stopping boards in the ditches, which 

 would prevent the water falling below a certain point, very much 

 as are used in cranberry practice. 



The dike of sand is a good proposition in the cranberry work 

 where I have seen those ditches successfully employed, but I 

 notice the plan is always to dig down through any muck that may 

 be present until the sand is struck. Then the dike is built of 

 sand and a band effected with the old sandy surface. 



In the Bergen County operation, to core that dam would have 

 meant hauling sand in cars and then aboard boats to get it there. 

 There is no sand anywhere around and they were compelled to 

 employ the material that was there. 



Of course, when we get down in this section of the state, we 

 can get any amount of sand, and it may be that that would be 

 one of the best ways to core the dikes. On the other hand, that 

 involves considerable movement of sand. These dikes are built, 

 say, 36 inches high, 3 feet wide at the top and 6 feet wide at the 

 bottom, and cost 35 cents a foot, nearly $5 a rod. Now my im- 

 pression is that the dikes on the cranberry bogs aren't built for 

 any such figure as this. 



