Mosquito Extermination in New York 



By Gayne T. K. Norton 



New York City's Health Commissioner, Dr. Haven Emerson, 

 took enough time off from work on the infantile paralysis plague 

 to show a party of civic workers, tax-payers and newspaper men 

 what he has been doing to the Jamaica B ay mosquitoes — to vindicate 

 himself, and to prove that public money was not being wasted. 

 The trip took a whole afternoon ; the course lay through miles of 

 salt marsh. Not one in the party of one hundred was bitten once. 



The city appropriated $150,000 for drainage work; of this sum 

 $60,000 is being expended in the low-land along Jamaica Bay 

 and the remainder along Flushing Bay. There are ten power 

 ditching machines at work, cutting ditches through the marsh 

 connecting with Jamaica Bay. In this way the entire marsh 

 is being drained; and the rising and falling tide in the bay 

 prevents the water in the ditches from becoming stagnant. The 

 machines were invented by H. I. Eaton, who is directing their 

 operation. There are 8,000 acres of marsh that are being ditched 

 at the rate of 30,000 linear feet a day; 1,790,000 feet of ditches 

 having thus far been dug. These, following soil surveys and 

 surveyor's lines, criss-cross the whole marsh, seaming it until the 

 surface resembles a miniature "western front." Some are of 

 great length and the main ditches rival small rivers in size. 



The entire neighborhood is now a "wonder spot" for those who 

 enjoy the exploration of a salt marsh. All one's time can be 

 devoted to flowers, mosses, insects, snakes, or birds, as the case 

 may be, without the annoyance of fighting mosquitoes. 



Anti -mosquito work began in New York in 1907 with Health 

 Department experiments on Staten Island. Since, 23,000 acres 

 of marsh have been drained at a cost of $757,863. With the close 

 of this summer the work will practically be completed. There 

 remains about 9,000 acres of salt marsh and 1,100 acres of fresh 

 marsh to be ditched; this, it is hoped, will be done by frost. 



Many Long Island towns have taken the hint from New York. 

 Islip, with three square miles of salt marsh, has ditched 500 acres. 

 Mamaroneck and New Rochelle are actively at work spending 

 thousands in ditches. 



New Jersey marshes are also receiving attention; the Newark 

 and Hackensack meadows are being treated in much the same 



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