2IO BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



places, and there are quite a number of them. Connecticut 

 has got quite a large area of salt marshes, over 34 square 

 miles, or more than 22,000 acres. We found, however, only a 

 very small proportion of these marshes is breeding mosquitoes. 

 Most of them are fairly well drained, either naturally or 

 artificially. The large Quinnipiack marsh of 3,600 acres is 

 quite fairly well drained for the purpose of getting the salt 

 marsh hay which grows there, and affords almost no breeding 

 place in the whole tract. Furthermore, many of the pools of 

 water are stocked with fishes and insects, which prevent the 

 breeding of mosquitoes. Wherever we have finished an exam- 

 ination of the salt marsh a report has been made to the health 

 officer of the town, and also a map has been given to him with 

 the breeding places located on it, and a report regarding the 

 conditions found, and also recommendations as to what shall 

 be done to get rid of the pest. 



Then we have been more or less engaged in the general 

 collection of Connecticut insects. A list of insects in New 

 Jersey was published four years ago, which contained some- 

 thing over eight thousand species. In Connecticut, probably, 

 there are as many insects as in New Jersey, although Con- 

 necticut is not quite the same as to mosquitoes. We probably 

 have just as many species, but our collection at present is only 

 beginning, and comprises about two thousand species. 



Before closing I wish to call your attention to the fact that 

 we may at any time get the Gypsy moth and the brown tailed 

 moth in Connecticut. These two insects have caused great 

 destruction in the eastern part of Massachusetts, and after a 

 million of dollars was spent in the effort to exterminate them the 

 work was dropped in 1900. There has been some talk about 

 the government lending a hand in fighting these insects, but 

 they will probably never exterminate them, and they will be 

 like the San Jose scale, always with us. The important point 

 in fighting all these insects, like the San Jose scale and the 

 Gypsy moth, is not extermination, but to hold them in check 



