St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1920-10-09
MOSQUITOES ELIMINATED By
DRAINAGE OF SEA MARSHES
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of industrial workers on this area
was greatly interfered with by the
presence of these pests, which during
large flights gave them no peace day
or night.
Nature of the Problem.
All states have mosquitoes, but
only the ones having costal marshes
or lying n reach of them have the
salt-mafsh species. These breed on
the immense salt marshes emerge at
times In such numbers as to form an
atmosphere and to give human be-
ings no peace either day Or night.
Furthermore, those that breed on the
salt-marsh fly and are wind-carried
for as far as 40 miles over adjacent
territory.
Sea-marsh mosquitoes may breed
abundantly only mile from your
cottage and the cottage remain free
if no favoring winds blow from the
breeding place toward it, while cot
tages in the direction of the faVorins
winds may he badly infested at a
distance of 80 miles from the breed
ing places.
Man Has Perfected Sufficient Meth
DDS for Suppressing the Salt
Marsh Mosquito.
Man is unable to modify the
weather, but he can so open the salt
marsh with ditching that all water
upon it will rise and fall with the
tide and afford the killish easy &C
cess to all parts of the marsh. Thus
he helps the mosquitoes greatest
natural enemy - the killfsh - to
reach and destroy them.
Furthermore, in view of the fact
that the salt-marsh surface Is nor
mally about one foot above mean
high tide, it is clear that this trench
ing will ordinarily remove all sheet
water from the surface and empty
all shallow pools, thus destroying
the great percentage of mosquito
wrigglers by drying them up.
In a few limited localities, already
referred to, it has been found more
practicable to fence the tide out than
to cut the large outlets necessary to
get nd of the tide water. But even
in such cases, unless the drainage
systems are pumped dry, it has been
found necessary to find a way to in
troduce and distribute the killfsh
throughout the bitches.
The unit Of the drainage system.
for salt-marsh mosquito suppression
which Is years experience has shown
to be best, is ditch 10 inches w d.
by 80 inches deep with straight sides
and an even bottom. These unit
bitches are led into natural creeks
wherever such action is possible, bnt
run into a specially cut outlet ditch
when natural outlets are not ATTAIN
able. The deeper salt holes are
drained by spurs from the nearest
unit ditch. The shallow and small
salt holes are filled with sod taken
from the ditching. The distance be-
tween drainage bitches varies from
Is to 400 feet. depending upon the
porosity of the particular salt marsh
Most marshes require the drains 80
feet apart.
These trenches described in the
preceding paragraph can be and often
are dug with ordinary garden spades.
It is usually more economical, how.
ever, to use special tools which have
been perfected for this type of work
during the last IL years. There are
at the present time in use on the salt
marshes Of New York and New Jer-
lsey, one type Of one-man spade, two
types of two-man spades, three
man spade and power ditcher. The
power ditcher under some conditions
Is the most efficient of these tools.
With this machine an average Of
5000 lineal feet of 10 by 30-inch
ditching can be cut in a day Of 10
hours.
Salt Marsh Mosquito Trenching In
creases Yield of Salt Hay.
Some salt-marsh owners think that
the mosquito drainage, as laid out
above will damage the present pro-
ductivity of the salt-marsh. This Is
most decidedly mistake. The in
come from the salt-marsh Is at pres
ent derived from salt-marsh hay. A
very large proportion Of the marsh
Is now covered with coarse grass
utterly unfit for hay and many areas
are too soft to permit harvesting even
II the hay they bear made harvest