I905-] QUESTIONS. 209 



The heat from the lime helps to dissolve the sulphur and the al- 

 kali present, also aids in its dissolution. After the lime has 

 ceased slaking the whole mixture should stand, with a very little 

 water added to it, so it will not dry up. We allowed it to stand 

 fifteen or twenty minutes, or perhaps half an hour. It is not 

 well to add too much water, because it is desirable to keep it 

 just as hot as possible. That dissolves more of the sulphur. 

 Then we added to that water and applied it to the trees. 



We also used caustic soda and water, which did not give 

 very good results. 



Aside from this work I have been engaged to some extent 

 in making a study of the mosquitoes of Connecticut and their 

 breeding places. As some of you know, this is a great deal 

 more important than we used to think, because it has been 

 proven that mosquitoes are the only agent that we know of in 

 the transmission of certain diseases, such as malarial and ty- 

 phoid fever. Malaria is a common disease in Connecticut, and 

 the reports of the State Board of Health show that during the 

 past ten years over a thousand deaths have occurred in the 

 state from malarial diseases. We have generally looked upon 

 malaria as a disease that makes a person feel uncomfortable, 

 but which is not dangerous. There are a great many more 

 cases where persons do not die than there are where death 

 occurs, but if there were one thousand deaths there were prob- 

 ably a hundred thousand cases in the state. 



The malarial mosquito breeds in about the same places that 

 the others do, in stagnant water and in holes and places where 

 stagnant water accumulates. It is known that it does not breed 

 anywhere else. Along the coast we have what is known as 

 the salt marshes, where mosquitoes are very abundant. The 

 most abundant kinds do not carry malaria. They are simply 

 pests and nuisances. The malarial mosquito breeds around 

 these salt marshes in about the same kind of places as the salt 

 marsh mosquito lives in, but these are very much rarer. We 

 began along the coast in Connecticut an examination of these 



Agr. — 14 



