14 LOSS THROUGH INSECTS THAT CARRY DISEASE. 



liis labor. To the farmers it ma}' mean the loss of their crops by 

 want of cultivation. It will always mean the noncultivation or 

 imperfect cultivation of thousands of acres of valuable land. It 

 means a listless activity in the world's work that counts mightily 

 against the wealth-producing poAver of the people. Finally it means 

 from two to five million or more days of sickness with all its attendant 

 distress, pain of body, and mental depression to some unfortunate 

 individuals of those five States." 



Referring to the Delta region in Mississippi, which lies along the 

 Mississippi River in the western part of the State of Mississippi, 

 extending from the mouth of the Yazoo River north nearly to the 

 Tennessee line, Herrick says that it is the second best farming land 

 in the world, having only one rival, and that is the valley of the Nile. 

 " Still," says Herrick, " this land to-day, or at least much of it, can 

 be bought at ten to twenty dollars an acre. Thousands of acres in 

 this region are still covered with the primeval forest, and the bears 

 and deer still roaming there oifer splendid opportunities for the 

 chase, as evidenced by the late visit of our Chief Executive to those 

 regions for the purpose of hunting. Why is not this land thickly 

 settled ? And why is it not worth from two to five hundred dollars 

 an acre? If it produces from one to two or more bales of cotton to 

 an acre, and it does, it ought to be worth the above named figures. 

 A bale of cotton to the acre can be produced for thirteen dollars, 

 leaving a net profit of twenty to forty dollars for each bale, or forty 

 to eighty or more dollars for each acre of land cultivated. Moreover, 

 this land has been doing that for years, and will do it for years to 

 come, without the addition of one dollar's worth of fertilizer. Land 

 that will produce a net profit of forty to eighty dollars an acre is a 

 sjDlendid investment at one, two, or even three hundred dollars an 

 acre. Yet this land does not sell in the market for anj^thing like so 

 much, because the demand is not sufficient, for white people positively 

 object to living in the Delta on account of malarial chills and fevers. 

 A man said to me not long ago that he would go to the Delta that day 

 if he were sure that his own life or the lives of the members of his 

 family would not be shortened thereby. There are thousands exactly 

 like him, and the only reason that these thousands do not go there to 

 buy lands and make homes is on account of chills and fevers. But 

 there is a time coming, and that not far distant, when malaria in the 

 Delta will not menace the would-be inhabitants. When that time 

 comes it will be the richest and most populous region in the United 

 States." 



Malaria is a preventable disease. It is possible for the human 

 species to live and to thrive and to produce in malarious regions, but 

 at a very considerable inconvenience and expense. The Italian inves- 

 tigators, and especially Celli and his staff, have shown that by 



