The Jersey City news., 1901-08-29
Bga!!N The PESTS
Old Newarker Says Mea-
dows Were Fired Sixty
Z. IL
or Seventy Years Ago. /
He HAS NO FAITH IN OIL
Law Said to Provide for
1851
Keeping the Swamps
Cleared Out.
Especial to ..The Jersey city N.ws."l

Especial to .The Jersey City News
NEWARK. Aug. %, 19o1.-Caleb Earl,
who lives on the old Elizabeth road. has
mad longer experience with mosquitoes
and the salt meadows than any man IN
Essex county. He was born in the vicin-
ity eigity-one years ago on the edge of
the great swamp meadows which extend
east to Newark Bay and south to Eliza
beth. Seventy years ago he began to fire.
auent the swamp meadows. where mis-
father and grandfather owned many
acres Of the marshy land. He has sold
nearly all his swamp land. He does not
believe that mosquitoes and malaria will
be gotten rid of until the bog holes are
filled and the marsh covered with fresh
soil or ashes.
People who say there were very few
mosquitoes on the swamp meadows when
Eound Creek and other streams were
navigable to the bay are very much mis-
taken. Severity years ago there were bill
liors of the pests on those meadows. In
my boyhood saw great clouds of the in
sects rise in midday while men were now
ing the black and fox grass in which the
insects hid from the rays of the sun. The
man who finds means to exterminate mos
quitoes will soon be millionaire, many
times over.
II have read of the spraying of stagnant
pools of water with kerosene to de-
stroy the eggs laid on the surface by fe-
male mosquitoes. No doubt this will give
temporary relief, but mos quitoes and ma
laria will never be got rid of until the
swamps are filled up with fresh earth
so the insects cannot breed. Malaria and
mosquitoes are always found together.
They are twin scourges of mankind.
Many years before it was discovered that
the insects carry malaria germs and in
oculated persons with the disease OBJ
served that wherever mosquitoes were
plenty malaria prevailed.
1T would cost an enormous sum to
fill in the entire swamp meadows. and it
would take years to do the work. A vast
amount of good could be done by first
setting fire to the swamp meadows burn
ing all the grass and vegetation down to
the roots, and the draining the bog holes
and low sections in which the water that
flows over the banks of the streams and
bitches remains stagnant. Fire destroys
the eggs of the mosquitoes kills the in
sects that fly, and where fire does not
finish them the smoke from the burning
grass will.
..Up to forty or fifty years ago owners
of parcels of the swamp meadows used
to NOW the grass and stack it and then
cart it away When persons failed to cut
the grass the authorities always set the
meadows on fire in March and burned
everything up. There was law which
provided for doing this, and / believe that
law is on the statutes yet. Now very
little grass is moved on the swamp mead
ows. Therefore, the tall grass, the cat
tails and other rank vegetation rot in the
fall of the year and fill the marsh lands
with a mass of decayed matter, which
emits a foul odor that believe contains
the germs of disease.
"The Newark authorities should set fire
to the marshes every spring and summer
and fall. for the fire and smoke will kill
the mosquitoes, destroy the eggs and
make the swamp clean. After the vege-
tation is burned to ashes, the-low places
ought to be drained. 1t is not necessary
and / speak from years of observation
and experience-to dig wide and deep
! bitches through to Newark Bay at great
expense. But narrow bitches should be
opened from the low lands to the natural
streams which connect with the bay. 1t
would be well to deepen these streams so
the tide would ebb and flow in them.
1.-THE banks of the streams are formed
of a blue muck that is hard as clay and
through which very little water runs.
Outside the banks the meadows are low
| and when the streams overflow the water
settles in this land and remains stagnant.
Rain showers add to the quantity of this
water There are hundreds of bog holes
| in these stretches of low swamps, and the
bogs are fruitful breeders of mosquitoes.
| / advise that small bitches be dug through
| this bog land to the streams so that
water will run through openings made in
| the hard blue muck banks Then the
stagnant water from the low marshes
would be conveyed into the streams and
carried into the bay by the flow Of the
| tide The soft marshes are from ten to
fifteen feet deep, and at those depths sand
1 is found 1t would take vast quantities
Of fresh earth to fill up these marshes,
for the soil is spongy and would sink two
or three feet under great weight of
earth.
1T would take years to fill in the great
| swamp meadows properly and cost a
great deal of money. But it would soon
! repay Newark for the outlay in the bene-
| fits to the health of the community. for if
/ the swamps were filled with earth until
| the great tract was entirely covered with
! a thick coat of dry soil mosquitoes would
! disappear because they cannot propagate
or exist except where there is water and
the ground is damp. And in proportion
as the insects decrease In number maleria
would disappear, for the scourges always
go together The people of Newark need
immediate relief, and therefore ! suggest
that the destruction Of all vegetation on
the meadows by fire, followed by the sys-
TEN of drainage have suggested, be tried
by the authorities
Mr.. Earl said that Bound Greek, Wheel
er,s Creek, Meeker's Creek, Oyster Creek,
| Maple Island Creek and other swamp
meadow streams are quite deep, and If
they were cleaned out they would carry
water out to the bay and salt water
would flow up the streams with the tide.
He said they are not a great distance
apart. SO the. small dttches for draining
the low swamp marshes need not be vfry
deep and wide, nor very long.
..Fofty years ago the ponds and bog
holes on the meadows were full Of water, .
Mr.. Earl said, that was so clear xyou
could see the wrigglers, embryo mos
auitoes darting around in the water. But
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