December, '17] HOWARD: MOSQUITO CONTROL 519 



The City Health Board gave their support to the work by granting 

 official badges to the inspectors, so that they were able to enter private 

 premises unmolested. A total of nine inspections were made between 

 June first and September first. With approximately 16,673 premises 

 in the territory covered, this gave a total of 150,000 visits made by 

 the six inspectors. Over 775 rain barrels were found, in spite of the 

 presence of the city water supply, all holding water and breeding mos- 

 quitos. Over 335 dumping places were found, one of them, the re- 

 mains of an old gully, extending nearly three miles across the city. 

 It required some extra labor to keep these dumps mosquito-less, by 

 smashing or burying water collectors. Sewer catch basins numbered 

 4,272, about 20 per cent of which were defective and mosquito breed- 

 ers. Each city block averaged about twenty uncovered barrels or 

 ash tins holding tin cans, which were potential mosquito nurseries. 

 From this data it can be seen that the work of the inspectors was not 

 light. Even the dry period coming in late July and August gave no 

 respite, for every small collection of water was found by the mos- 

 quitos and the intense heat hastened their development. 



In the spraying small D. & B. No. 2 compressed air spray pumps 

 were used, these pumps enabling the operator to control the pressure 

 without removing the tank from his back. We were unable to secure 

 the grade of oil desired, so employed a mixture of heavy fuel oil and 

 kerosene, which gave good results. 



In addition to field supervision a biweekly meeting of inspectors 

 was held at which difficulties encountered and plans for the work were 

 talked over. Frequent shifts of inspectors to new districts enabled 

 us to check up on the inspection and make it more thorough. 



A leaflet on mosquitos was prepared and printed by the Real Estate 

 Board. A copy was left at every house in the territory and was given 

 to every school child in the city. 



Active work was begun on June 1, and by July 1 results began to 

 be very evident in most parts of the eight square miles, and by August 

 1 few mosquitos were left. We had prophesied that the work would 

 reduce mosquitos 95 per cent, but 99 per cent was a closer approach 

 to the actual reduction. The following letter, printed in the Min- 

 neapolis Daily News on July 26, is a sample of the opinion which the 

 public passed upon the work. 



"Editor, Daihj News. — When we first moved into our present home, 

 three blocks from the Lake of the Isles, the mosquitos were so bad 

 that we could not weed our gardens in the early evening or sit out 

 with comfort. We actually had to sacrifice our gardening after sev- 

 eral seasons of batthng with the skeets and we had to screen our porches 



