282 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Presenting the matter to Dr. E. B. Voorhees, the director of the 

 station, he was authorized to ask the state legislature for a sum of 

 money sufficient to make such a study of the problem as might be 

 necessary to enable him to make practical recommendations, suited 

 to conditions as they actually existed in New Jersey. Though at 

 first inclined to treat the matter as a huge joke, the law-making body 

 did pass the necessary act appropriating ten thousand dollars for the 

 purpose declared, and this amount, it was intended, should cover two 

 years of work; the minimum of time considered necessary. As a 

 matter of fact it was spread over three years and the investigation is 

 now completed. The detailed report is in the hands of the governor 

 and will be printed in due course; but it may be interesting to sum- 

 marize some of the conclusions for general information. 



It is positively demonstrated that of the thirty-five species of 

 mosquitoes occurring in New Jersey only a few are ever troublesome, 

 and that not more than half a dozen need be considered from the prac- 

 tical standpoint. It has been further found that in this state the 

 mosquito is not a local problem and that in many cases the pest that 

 makes porches uninhabitable at night was bred miles away. 



Beginning at the head of Newark Bay, the coast extending south- 

 ward is edged with a fringe of salt marsh, broken only for a short 

 stretch along Baritan Bay, and from Long Branch to Point Pleasant; 

 and even here every stream has such an edging. Beginning at Bay 

 Head there is an outer bar or strip of sand varying in width from 

 half a mile to two miles or more, broken at irregular intervals but 

 reaching to Cape May. On this narrow shore strip summer resorts 

 like Seaside Park, Barnegat City, Beach Haven, Atlantic City, Ocean 

 City and many others have developed and there is no better beach in 

 the world for bathing and other aquatic sports. Between this outer 

 fringe and the mainland is an area of low marsh, broken into islands 

 by channels, with bodies of water, some large like Barnegat Bay and 

 Great Bay, the majority small. Broad stretches of such marsh also 

 extend along the large rivers of South Jersey so far as the tide makes 

 the water distinctly brackish. Along the Delaware Bay shore the 

 mainland extends closer to the water's edge and the salt marsh areas 

 are smaller, and they gradually disappear along the banks of the river 

 going north, as the water becomes fresh. Altogether there are many 

 thousands of acres of such marsh and on it, in water ranging from 

 fresh to salt, breed four species of mosquitoes. They breed there and 

 nowhere else in the state ; but practically two of these salt marsh forms 

 dominate the country for from twenty to forty miles back. In other 

 words they migrate in immense swarms from the places where they 

 were developed and live for weeks or even months in places where, but 

 for them, mosquitoes would be unknown. 



