i6 



of the boundary. The outlets to tidewater are through Peddie 

 Ditch, Maple Island Greek and Bound Creek. Dikes are shown 

 on both sides of Peddie Ditch and on ditches leading into 

 Peddie Ditch flowing north; along both sides of Maple Island 

 Creek for several hundred feet west of the Central Railroad of 

 New Jersey, the right of way of the Central Railroad itself 

 forming a dike; and also the dikes on each side of Bound 

 Creek. 



The seemingly hopeless confusion in the arrangement 0(f 

 these ditches may be explained by the fact that they were dug 

 at different times by different authorities, and that no compre- 

 hensive plan of drainage was ever made of this area. The 

 earliest ditches were dug by the State during Professor Smith's 

 time; more were added by the City of Newark, acting through 

 its Board of Health, and finally the balance of the ditches were 

 dug at the expense of the county through the Essex County 

 Mosquito Extermination Commission. 



Notwithstanding the great irregularity in the location of 

 the small ditches, it might appear that it would not be particu- 

 larly difficult to arrange for a circulation of water through 

 them by opening some of the tide-gates and keeping others 

 closed, but in this particular piece of meadow the problem is 

 greatly complicated because many of the larger ditches are badly 

 polluted by raw sewage, and to reverse the flow in any of these, 

 and to back it up into the small ditches, would mean a serious 

 pollution of these small ditches, with the likelihood of starting 

 the breeding of pipiens, or house mosquitoes. To obviate this, 

 it is possible that some additional tide-gates will be necessary 

 to introduce the flood tides into such portions of the meadow 

 as are not carrying sewage, and to circulate this flood water 

 in such a way that it will pass out through the polluted ditches. 



The need for the circulation of water on the drained salt 

 marshes is not constant, and as a general proposition it is not 

 difflcult to obtain when needed. 



Pre:sidi^nt Darnai^Iv — Mr. Brooks always leaves with us 

 some matter of real scientific value, and I hope that everybody 

 will feel perfectly free to ask him any questions or to discuss 



