The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-10-10

partment of Agriculture there is lying
waste and unclaimed between New
York city and Portland, Me-. LAND
worth forty million dollars. 1t is salt
marsh, covered in whole or in part with
water at high tide, but the whole of il
can be reclaimed and fitted for cultiva-
tion at a cost of less than one-fifth of
its value And with the draining and
cultivation of this great area of prop
erty, now useless, will vanish the great
pest OF, the low-lying territory around
it, the mosquito.
A beginning in the work of draining
and retaining the salt marshes was
made few months ago on the Sound
shore Of Long Island, between Sands
Point and Cold Spring harbor. The
task is being undertaken by the
wealthy residents of the district, of
whom President Roosevelt is one. Its
| completion will not only give them
new valuable land, but will greatly en-
nance the value of their own property
and make life on it pleasanter by ban
ishing the mosquitoes.
| The first work has been done on the
| Center Island marsh, just back of the
| Seawanraka Corinthian clubhouse at
| Oyster Bay; and as result of sum-
mer of practical engineering, while mo-
squitoes have swarmed in greater num-
| Der than ever before everywhere else
about New York, there has been a no.
| table decrease in the number in that
| district.
| The job has been undertaken thor
oughly and scientifically, and the De-
partment of Agriculture at Washing
| ton has been SUFFICIENTLY interested in 1t
| to send down a special investigator.
| He was Thomas H. Means of the Blu
| reau of Soils, and his report has now
| been published by the department to
| demonstrate how the Atlantic coast can
| be rid in a great measure of the mo-
| squto pest and at the same time large
areas of valuable land can be secured
for cultivation at comparatively small
cost.
Everywhere in Europe salt marshes
are regarded as the most fertile of
lands In the east of England the
Fens, to the extent of more than
million acres, have been diked and
ditched and are now in a state of
matchless fertility, and large areas in
Holland, Denmark, Belgium and north
ern Germany have been cultivated for
many years. Here, close at hand in
New Jersey, there are at least mill
lion acres easily reclaimable and now
waste. Between this city and Portland
this report puts the total reclainable
area of salt marsh at Exceeding two
hundred thousand acres"
But" says the report, there is a
great advantage in the fact that all of
it is near he large centers of popula-
ton where every acre will have high
value as market garden soil or fields for
the raising of hay. When brought into
their best state such areas will, meas
ured by the price put upon other lands
in the same neighborhood have value
of not less than two hundred dollars an
acre. And the cost of retaining is
less than one fifth Of this
The oyster Bay experiment is so far
the first practical attempt on any seri-
Gus scale at retaining salt marshes in
this country. A few half-hearted tri-
ais have been made and Abandoned, but
according to Mr.. Means there are we'll
established methods of reclamation in
Europe and If these are used anywhere,
success is certain. There has never
been a known case of failure to effect
complete reclamation when all precau-
lions were taken, and it is generally
conceded that one acre of reclaimed
salt marsh is worth four or five acres of
upland.
+,.o,, h hn,,te hos hb
report says that "the reclamation of
tidal lands to be successful at mini
mum experience In such matters. The
question of how to build dykes, the
cheapest and most efficient method of
drainage to be employed, and the sub
sequent management of the soil to
bring 1t into state of fertility at the |
earliest possible moment, are all pro-
blems which require experience and !
judgment if the work Is to be a success. |
Unfortunately in America there are no |
trained agricultural engineers, nor is |
there an institution which claims to |
train expert agricultural engineers. !
The best person, then, to plan and |
manage the reclamation is a civil engf- |
neer who has had experience in some !
related work Men of experience have !
a habit of charging well for their SER |
vices, but the money spent in fees to |
the right man is well invested. Dyking |
and ditching done by inexperienced or |
careless persons will require more In re- |
pairs each year than would have been |
necessary to insure proper supervision |
in the first instance"
At oyster Bay no chances are being |
taken in this direction An association i
of property owners of which Colgate |
Hoyt is the treasurer, is managing the |
work and it is backed by practically |
unlimited capital. DR.. Charles Daven- |
port and Professor F. E. Lutz, ento-
mologists of the University of Chica
go, just respected the territory to be
drained with view to settling the mo-
squito problem. Then Henry Clay |
Weeks, 2 civil engineer Of experience
took up the work. 1t was started in
April last.
Two marshes, comprising seventy
acres on Center Island, through which
a creek ran sluggishly into the Sound,
were tackled first. Through these four |
bitches were cut, todrain the river !
meadow. The material got from the |
excavation filled up the creek. The |
drained to an automatic sluice |
gate in the causeway between the inner
and outer meadow, letting the water