392 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 



regions, is in operation and needs no argument. Drainage on a small scale for 

 the purpose of doing away with mosquitoes has been practiced for a long time. 

 In " Mosquitoes," p. 198, Howard shows how, by an expenditure of $40 for 

 drainage, in the summer of 1900, in a Maryland village, malaria was practically 

 abolished, although the previous summer there had been one or more cases in 

 every family in the district. 



One of the editors of the Scientific American, Mr. Beech, has given a good 

 illustration of the good effect of drainage work prior to the general interest in 

 mosquito destruction, which is quoted (loo. cit., pp. 208-209) as follows: 



" In the town of Stratford, Conn., where I have resided for the past forty-five 

 years, we have been greatly plagued by swarms of mosquitoes, so great, in fact, 

 that the ' Stratford mosquito ' became a well-known characteristic of Stratford. 

 We have in the southern part of our town, bordering on the sound, several acres 

 of marsh-land or meadow, which would become periodically overflowed with 

 water in the summer and a tremendous breeding-ground for mosquitoes, and 

 this plague to the town continued until about 1890-91, when a party from 

 Bridgeport, Conn., purchased a large section of the meadows and began to pro- 

 tect them by a dike, both on the north and south ends, which shut out the water. 

 In addition to this, numerous drain ditches were made which helped to carry 

 the water away. The result of this work made the land perfectly dry and spong}-, 

 so that after a rain no pools collected on the surface of the meadow and the 

 creation of the mosquitoes was prevented. The transformation was so remark- 

 able that people outside the town would hardly believe that it had been eft'ected, 

 and a year or two later the town voted a special appropriation of $2000 to the 

 party who undertook to build the dike and render the meadows mosquito-proof. 

 It had also the effect of placing on the market a large tract of land elevated from 

 the sound, for residences, and as many as twenty-five summer residences have 

 been built upon this land bordering on the sound, and the number is increasing 

 each year. They are free from mosquitoes, so that the operation shows the 

 economy and the benefit that \n\\ result by using some means for eliminating 

 the mosquito breeding pools." 



A great deal of valuable drainage work has been done in the past few years in 

 salt-marshes of the North Atlantic coast, and there is one instance of this on the 

 Pacific coast. All had the direct idea of doing away with the salt-marsh mos- 

 quitoes, which have unusual powers of flight and are able to proceed inland for 

 many miles, thus annoying the inhabitants of a large extent of country. One 

 of the first operations of this kind was conducted by the wealthy owners of Center 

 Island off the north coast of Long Island, in Long Island Sound. This work 

 led to the somewhat extensive work under the organization known as the North 

 Shore Improvement Association, referred to elsewhere, and which included 

 simple operations over a considerable distance along the north shore of Long 

 Island. These operations took place in 1902-1903. Later, some excellent work 

 was done at Lawrence, Long Island, and the following account, taken from the 

 " Report of the [New York] State Entomologist," Dr. E. P. Felt, for 1905, 

 gives an excellent idea of methods and results : 



" A most striking illustration of this work is that given by Lawrence, L. I., 

 which has amply demonstrated the feasibility of controlling the salt marsh mos- 



