i66 



necessary to provide an outlet to tidewater. This can be done 

 by digging a canal ditch of sufficient width and depth to carry 

 the water supplied by the parallel and lateral ditches which are 

 connected thereto. 



A source of difficutly is the material excavated. When it dries 

 out it becomes very light and is carried about the marshes by 

 the perigee tides. This trouble has in part been overcome by 

 using the material excavated in filling pockets and salt holes and 

 by piling up and burning it and by the removal of same by propi- 

 erty owners for filling purposes. 



The use of specially constructed tools and power machines, 

 which cut a sod ten by ten inches wide and from twenty-four to 

 thirty inches deep, has done much to correct this difficulty, for 

 when wet, the sods are too heavy to float and during the growing 

 season they attach themselves to the marsh lands alongside of 

 the ditch. At other times they have to be disposed of as best they 

 may, for while there is small chance of them floating back into 

 the ditches, it is found that hay cutters replace them instead of 

 bridging the ditches. Therefore, it is obvious that no mosquito 

 campaign can be successful without taking into consideration the 

 necessity of the maintenance of the work. There are few days, 

 even during the winter months, when useful work cannot be done. 



The cost of draining salt-marsh land, when one considers the 

 results, is remarkably cheap. A number of contracts let in this 

 and other States range from two to fifteen dollar^ per acre, or 

 from one and a quarter cents to two and three-quarter cents per 

 linear foot. It has been my experience that two and a half cents 

 a foot is a fair price, when labor conditions are normal, and that 

 fromi four hundred to six hundred linear feet per acre will, if 

 properly maintained, permanently eliminate the breeding of mos- 

 quitoes on salt marshes. 



I will now present for your consideration, in as few words 

 as possible, the work that has been done, what is being done, and 

 what we propose to do in the city of New York. 



In the city of New York, including the five boroughs, namely, 

 Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Richmond, approxi- 

 mately thirty-one thousand five hundred acres of salt marsh and 



