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able number of feet of ditches that are unnecessary? Would 

 twenty, thirty or even forty per cent, less serve the purpose if 

 differently located ? Have we so placed or located any consider- 

 able number of ditches that, when made, not only proved worth- 

 less, but troublesome breeding places? And if so, what is the 

 remedy ? 



Have we shut-in areas behind dikes and sluice-gates upon 

 which tidewater cannot enter? If so. is it advisable to continue 

 oiling such places, or is the installation of pumps the solution 

 of such problems? 



And finally, is it advisable to make ditches for mosquito 

 reduction work any place where tidewater cannot freely ebb and 

 flow through such ditches? 



The system of salt-marsh drainage introduced in this State 

 by the late John B. Smith is so well understood in this State 

 (and may I say, on the other hand, so thoughtlessly prosecuted), 

 that much might be said pro and con. If no merit attaches to 

 this paper, it may at least set chief inspectors to thinking, and 

 by so doing perfect a drainage system in their several counties. 

 That is the dffiicult problem. Control marsh breeding and the 

 victory is won. 



I believe that chief inspectors should have a free hand in 

 solving all problems pertaining to the work of mosquito reduc- 

 tion, particularly the salt-marsh work, and if they do' not make 

 good it will be their own fault. 



I have asked questions herein rather than attempted to eluci- 

 date the proposition set forth for discussion, in the hope that 

 the gentlemen following me may be prepared and feel inclined 

 to answer them, and by so doing give us the benefit of their 

 experience. Not a scintilla of criticism is intended by these 

 questions. If they are answered, I will confess that he who 

 answers them has gone further afield than I have. 



We intend to' make in our county, in the near future, a com- 

 plete set of sectional charts of every acre of our marsh area. 

 Those charts will be made so that we can see at a glance the acre- 

 age of every section and the nature of such soil, whether cat-tails, 

 stump lots or grass meadow ; the amount, capacity and location 



