throughout the county care was used in first ascertaining from 

 the owner the road used for removing hay, and, second, to get 

 his promise tO' build bridges across the ditching- installed. Our 

 inspectors then laid out the required ditches in such a manner 

 as to secure the best drainage possible, and still not compel the 

 owner to- build too many bridg-es. In some cases systems were 

 laid out so that every piece of meadow could be reached with- 

 out having to cross a ditch, but in spite of our efforts to please 

 these hay-land owners, our spring maintenance gangs spend 

 several weeks each year removing sods that have been placed in 

 the ditches as bridges for hay wagons. Oif course, the owner 

 is never guilty. The blockages miust have been placed by the 

 man who rents the land or the hired man who^ cuts the hay. 

 We also- have the coinscientious owmer who' lives up tO' his prom- 

 ise about the sod, but who fills the ditches with hay. 



We have one other obstruction, namely, the man who claims 

 that ''the Good Lord put the mosquitoes here and He alone will 

 take them away." This type is afraid to give our ditching sys- 

 tems a chance and will do everything in his power to balk our 

 efforts. As, for example, a resident of the Patcong Creek sec- 

 tion, which before drainage was one of our most troublesome 

 meadows, placed plugs in numerous places in all the ditches dug 

 on his property. Our inspector removed these plugs on each 

 trip, which was every two weeks during the season, and upon 

 asking for an explanation received the above reply. It is pleas- 

 ing to^ note that this type is gradually disappearing from our 

 county. 



The stoppage of floating sods is decreasing each year, due 

 partly to the fact that the old hand-cut sods have had time to 

 grow fast to the meadows and partly to our policy of placing 

 all sod handled by the miaintenance gang's into piles, the tops 

 of which are well above the highest tide. Sod piled in this way 

 Avill never float. We also find the sods turned out by our ditch- 

 ing miachines, while they float on a high tide, do not plug the 

 ditches except in. very rare instances. 



In spite of the imiproved ditching methods there is no doubt 

 that cleaning of this sort will have to be done yearly. F'ortu- 



