33 



must be of a different type and one that requires different and 

 more expensive care. 



Fromi the foregoing facts it is very evident that some other 

 means must be found of maintaining the salt-marsh drainage 

 tO' get and keep the mfaximum efficiency. Certain it is that with 

 the present method of handwork the cost cannot be materially 

 lessened. This brings us face tO' face with the problem of secur- 

 ing some other method of cleaning that will reduce the cost to 

 not over one-fifth of a cent per foot. 



The cost of salt-marsh ditching was reduced by the introduc- 

 tion of modern ditching machines. We muist look to machines 

 to reduce the cost of cleaning. We have heard of machines de- 

 signed to clean lox 30-inch ditches ; we have seen drawings of 

 at least one, but this one would not answer the requiremients 

 of the Atlantic County meadows. If used on good salt hay 

 meadow there is no doubt it would answer the purpose, but, 

 unfortunately for this machine, ditches in salt hay meadow 

 do not need much, if any, cleaning. To' enumerate some of the 

 adverse conditions to be met by a cleaning machine where it is 

 most needed, it would be w|ell to start with the thousands of 

 holes crossed by ditches, and, therefore, in the need of a clean- 

 ing to the depth of these ditches. These holes range from ten 

 tO' twO' hundred feet in diameter and have a depth of from four 

 inches to twenty inches. The bottomis are of soft mud and w^ill 

 not support the weight of a man without the use of boards. It 

 is easily seen that a successful nuachine for this work has to be 

 one of . extreme lightness. It might occur tO' some one that 

 better results would be obtained by ditching around such holes, 

 but in this case they were so close together and in such large 

 numbers that cutting through them was the only possible vv^ay. 



Next we come to many thousands of feet of ditches that have 

 been cut through sedge grass underlaid w|ith clay. This clay 

 bakes hard in the sun and is extremely hard tO' cut. To remove 

 such material a machine would have to be staunch and rigid, 

 which would no doubt add to its weight. In many cases of our 

 ditches, especially along the bottoms, we come tO' sand at a depth 

 of from fifteen to thirty inches. In such places the depth of 

 3 MO 



