38 



fore abandoned, and at the same time guarantee immunity from 

 the mosquito annoyance to the people who inhabit and invest 

 their money in the various sections throughout the county. 



Our residents, like the residents of other counties who have 

 active Mosquito Commissions, begin to realize the importance of 

 mosquito elimination work, and are becoming more co-operative 

 by taking greater interest than they have in the past. 



Pre:side:nt Darnai.1. — Mr. Stephen Johnson, of Mana- 

 hawkin, will be the next speaker. 



Maintenance of Salt-Marsh Drainage Systems. 



BY STe:PHE:n JOHNSON, CHIE:i^ INSPECTOR 01^ THE OCEAN COUNTY 

 MOSQUITO EXTERMINATION COMMISSION. 



We in Ocean County are now facing the problem of main- 

 taining the drainage systems which have already been cut in our 

 salt marshes. We find that the grass grows over the ditches and 

 fails down into them. We find that a black sediment accumu- 

 lates in the bottom. The complete removal of the grass by means 

 of fire is impracticable, and the removal of the black sediment is 

 an expensive operation. With any ditches which are so cut as to 

 result in the accumulation of black sediment the cost of removal 

 is sufficient to justify the use of a machine, if such an apparatus 

 were on the market. 



The machine to do this kind of work should be so constructed 

 as to work in ditches of various depths and widths. Such a 

 machine should be able to cut the grass and remove the sedi- 

 ment at the same time. Such a machine will meet with many 

 difficulties, such as soft-bottom salt ponds, widely varying widths 

 and depths of ditches, sharp variations of the course of ditches 

 and the presence of rows of sod which originally come from the 

 ditches. 



President Darnai.1. — Now, gentlemen, this most interesting 

 and practical symposium is open for discussion. I do not know 

 any feature of the work that is more important than this. We 

 can go on and cut millions and millions of feet of ditches, but 



