11 



ECONOMIC EFFECT OF MOSQUITO 

 REDUCTION 



PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT ECONOMIC EFFECT of mOSquito re- 

 duction has been in the increased value of vacation lands along the 

 seashore. It was no mere matter of chance that the Asbury Park re- 

 gion on the Monmouth County shore and Absecon Island in Atlantic 

 County were developed before other vacation spots. There were no 

 salt marshes closely adjacent to Asbury Park, and Absecon Island 

 is swept by prevailing sea breezes, hence neither had a serious mosquito 

 problem. 



On the other hand there is a record (5) of the Berkeley Arms Hotel 

 built about 1880 at what is now Seaside Park, said to be the finest hotel 

 on the coast, but killed its first summer because a huge flight of mos- 

 quitoes drove the guests home. It was located at the terminus of the 

 railroad both to New Jersey and Philadelphia, was financed by the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad and had all the prestige of that road behind it, 

 but it never recovered from the reputation given by that first flight of 

 mosquitoes and was finally abandoned, and later burned down. 



Today the thriving resorts of Seaside Park and Seaside Heights with 

 an assessed value of almost four million dollars adjoin the location of 

 that ill-fated hotel and bear testimony to the economic value of mos- 

 quito control for shore resorts. 



Robert F. Engle (7) has made a study of the taxable values of all 

 boroughs and municipalities having salt marshes within their borders 

 or standing adjacent to salt marshes. Results are shown in Tables XII, 

 XIII, and XIV. 



The areas studied were finally classified as follows : the first where 

 the salt marsh mosquitoes had always been scarce, the second where 

 salt marsh mosquitoes had been greatly reduced since 1915 and in many 

 parts made scarce, and the third where mosquitoes were troublesome, 

 and in some cases very troublesome. Each of these groups had its yearly 

 increase in tax valuations, between 1900 and 1915 inclusive, set up as 



318 



