3s 



meadows are more easily drained owing to the porosity of the 

 soil. The low lying* position of many other meadows makes it 

 necessary to construct dikes and install tide-gates, so that a 

 proper and efficient drainag'e system may be maintained during 

 the high tides and rainy seasons. All of these varied conditions 

 places every meadow in a class by itself, and each should be 

 studied as such in order tO' get the best results. 



Some of the methods of the maintenance of salt-marsh drain- 

 age systems in a few counties of the State, including Monmouth, 

 that have been actively engaged in the wprk for only a short 

 time, are susceptible of improvement, and to some extent are 

 in their experimental stage. The changing- conditions make it 

 necessary to adopt different experimental methods in order to 

 learn which one produces the best results under certain condi- 

 tions. 



It is not my intention to' undertake to show how to maintain 

 properly the drainage systems of all classes of meadows, as 

 only men of expert knowledge and practical experience of long 

 standing can, in my judgment and belief, do this work effi- 

 ciently, therefore I will confine myself to the maintenance of 

 the drainage systems that have so far been installed in the salt- 

 marsh meadows in Monmouth County. 



The largest percentage of salt-marsh meadows in Monmouth 

 County is located along the south shore of Raritan Bay, which 

 forms the northerly county line, and along both branches of the 

 Shrewsbury River, sometimes referred tO' as the ''Rhine of 

 America." The largest of these meadows is the Belford 

 meadow, containing about 700 acres, and the only meadow that 

 has been completely ditched. The work was done last season 

 with the Eaton ditching machine. The Commission expects 

 this year to complete the necessary ditching in all the other 

 meadows of the county. 



For the last two years the maintenance oi the incomplete 

 drainage systems of the meadows in Monmouth has been some- 

 what of a difficult task, but not without beneficial results. The 

 method adopted was tO' begin early in the season to remove all 

 obstructions and sediment from the existing ditches that had 



