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In the last three years the salt marsh development in several 

 sections of the meadows under our care has been tremendous. 

 This development has been along the bay front, leaving large 

 areas of meadow shut in and tapped only by tidewater creeks, 

 which have been bridged or piped as the development passed 

 over them. 



The methods used in draining salt marshes for mosquito 

 elimination — a series of narrow ditches which are seldom used 

 in other drainage problems and little understood — render them 

 more liable to destruction by those engaged in developing the 

 meadows for industrial purposes. It is because of this develop- 

 ment that we make weekly inspections to iforestall any damage 

 such development might do our work, and we find a ready co- 

 operation from those who would unknowingly damage our sys- 

 tem of drainage w^hen their attention is called to the importance 

 of preserving it. 



The maintenance of dikes in connection with salt marsh drain- 

 age requires little attention when properly constructed. A 

 healthy growth of vegetation is taking place on our dikes which 

 helps their preservation, and about the only attention we give 

 them is to plug up rat runs from time to time. 



The maintenance of tide-gates is interesting. Probably due 

 to the excessive pollution of Newark Bay and the streams enr 

 tering therein, the deteriorating effect on materials which go 

 into tide-gate construction is considerable. Onl)^ non-rust metals 

 should be used in constructing these gates, and if the gates are 

 expected to serve for indefinite periods of time, chemically treated 

 lumber should be employed. 



In tide-gate construction obstacles such as getting the ma- 

 terials out to the place where the gate is to be installed have to 

 be overcome. First determine the amount of lumber, hard- 

 ware, etc., needed, and it may be practical to have the materials 

 delivered on the water front and "rafted" to the job. 



An item of considerable expense in maintaining salt-marsh 

 drainage is the periodical cleaning of ditches. The cost for this 

 work now averages about one-half of one cent per foot, and so 

 far it has been necessary to depend on hand labor. I am of the 



