70 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE. 



The great economic importance of the utiHzation of our 

 marsh land becomes apparent when I state that we have in all 

 nearly 300,000 acres of such land in the State. I believe it can 

 be made the most productive of all our agricultural lands, as 

 that has been the experience elsewhere. Not only has much 

 of the soil valuable fertilizing constituents, but there is another 

 great advantage peculiar to lands of this nature. The farmer 

 is practically independent of rainfall, because when moisture is 

 insufficient he may close his sluices and allow the water to rise 

 in his ditches, so that he has an effective system of irrigation. 

 This method is adopted on a large scale most successfully in 

 areas such as the great Rhineland district about Leiden, in 

 Holland. As some of you may know, the mouth of the old 

 Rhine, at Katwyck, where it falls intO' the sea, is controlled by 

 great sluices, so' that more or less water may be allowed to 

 escape and the levels up in the polder lands regulated accord- 

 ingly. I have seen Dutch farmers living most comfortably, and 

 showing evidences of prosperity, who are farming only twenty 

 acres polder land. The lands in the Harlem meer, when I 

 visited them in 191 3, were said to be worth usually $6001 per 

 acre. Some of them which are used for the growing of tulips,, 

 particularly between Leiden and Harlem, bring as much as 

 $3,000 per acre. We have not as yet the density of the popula- 

 tion of Holland, nor have we the efficient farmers who can 

 produce such results, but if we can make these marsh lands 

 worth $100 per acre, by improvement, we shall have a profit 

 of fifteen million dollars in addition to accomplishing all of the 

 other desirable ends. These are not merely the elimination of 

 mosquitoes. Imagine, if you will, our unsightly marshes, such 

 as those between Jersey City and Newark and those between 

 this place and the upland, transformed into gardens or even 

 fine pastures, such as we see everywhere in Holland, imagine 

 them dotted with neat, little farm houses and grazed over by 

 handsome cattle. Do you not think that you would at once 



