REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 5 



general instructions to look out for them at all times. Especial 

 work on these species was done at and near Delair in some 

 choked swamp areas by Afj". Seal. 



In order -to make people practically acquainted with the char- 

 acter oif the work that was needed, my assistan'ts acted as super- 

 intendents at New Cape May, Beach Haven, Alonmouth Beach, 

 Rumson Neck and Newark, further details of which are else- 

 where in the report. 



It would be folly to say that a complete moscjuito survey of 

 the State has been made. There are considerable stretches of 

 territory where no work has been done, simply because with the 

 ■funds at my command it was impossible to cover them. There 

 are areas, however, where mosquitoes do not fig-ure as trouble- 

 some pests, or which are practically uninhabited because the mos- 

 quitoes make them so. It is cjuite possible that there may. be 

 some species that we have not yet found ; but ^these are likely to 

 be local and not, troublesome. Only one species has eluded us 

 in the larval stage and that occurs all over the State, sometimes 

 quite commonly. The principal objects of the investigation have 

 been attained; we know, practically all our species, their habits 

 and breeding places ; we have determined by practical work and 

 by experiment that control is possible at a reasonable cost, and 

 there remains only the practical carrying out of the recommenda- 

 tions made. 



It seems clear tliat the conditions are such as to demand 

 State aid and. perhaps. State supervision for the control of the 

 marsh breeding species ; but even if this involved the expendi- 

 ture of a million dollars from the State Treasury, the benefits 

 to be derived in the increased value of the property, to say 

 nothing- of the increased comfort to the people, would repay the 

 expenditure one hundred fold. One conservative gentleman who 

 contributed $50 to a fund for cleaning out a large breeding area, 

 told me that this outlay had increased the value of his ]}ro])ert\ 

 holdings by $io,oco! Not all improvements will pay so well ; 

 but take the mosquito pest from Barnegat Bay and consider the 

 resulting increase of visitors to that paradise for fishermen ! The 

 increase in value in that territory alone would pay for all the 

 work that would have to be done along shore. 



At the beginning of the in\-estigation and even while the law 

 authorizing it was under consideration in the legislature, th.e 

 press with a few notable exceptions ridiculed the entire subject, 

 and the mind of the pul)lic at large was not much better dis- 

 posed. The general belief was tb.at an impossibility was at- 

 tempted and that the whole was a scheme that would result in 

 the expenditure of public money without obvious result. It 



