on Mosquito Extermination. 15 



find what the real cost will be. So I spent $100 for 10,000 

 feet of ditching on the Newark meadows to test the effective- 

 ness of a system and to make sure it could be done for that same 

 price no matter how much ditching was needed. 



The study of the natural enemies of the mosquito as a 

 fourth topic falls well within my plan, and the results have 

 already been very important. 



It is also quite fair to do a certain amount of surveying, 

 and to lay out drainage schemes for very bad areas to stimu- 

 late local work and to show how such work should be planned. 



Finally, the outcome of such an appropriation as that 

 which I have been handling should be a comprehensive report 

 which will enable local communities to plan intelligently for 

 their own relief. 



Wherever mosquito breeding areas are of limited extent, 

 in a well populated region, the State should not go further than 

 to furnish the advice and, perhaps, general direction for the 

 work. The work itself should be at the cost and carried out 

 by local communities. 



The matter is more doubtful where from a large extent of 

 marsh area millions of mosquitoes migrate to communities in 

 other counties that have no jurisdiction over the breeding places. 

 Here, it would seem, the State must at least assist ; though 

 just how, is as yet a little obscure. 



I am quite aware that this matter of migration does not 

 seem of such dominating importance to all persons, and further 

 inland it is probably not so great a factor ; but in New Jersey, 

 with its long coast line, the mosquito problem is dependent for 

 its satisfactory solution upon our ability to control those forms 

 that breed on the salt marsh and thence fly an outside distance 

 of say 40 miles into the upland. 



In brief, my idea is that we should first of all spend time and 

 money in learning the character and extent of our task — that 

 W'C may save time and money wasted in makeshifts, and the 

 loss of confidence resulting from failures. 



Chairman : I will next call on Mr. Walter C. Kerr, Staten 

 Island, President Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co., New 

 York. 



