144 ACxRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



the State should assist the wealthy shore communities in ridding" 

 themselves of the pest within their own jurisdiction, but it should 

 make some provision for helping- out those communities that are 

 willing- to help themselves. This might be done in part by pro- 

 viding- a means by which any community could have its breeding 

 places located, the source of its mosquito supply determined and 

 the method of getting rid of them indicated. It might also assist 

 directly, by providing for the payment of a certain percentage of 

 the cost whenever the localities affected have raised a specified 

 amount or proportion of the needed sum. In some such way the 

 State must assist, and if it will also provide for a method of com- 

 pelling the drainage or filling of areas that bar the way to a com- 

 plete piece of work the days of the mosquito pest may be said to 

 be numbered. 



h. BOARDS OF HEALTH IN THE MOSQUITO CRUSADE. 



As a rule I have found ready assistance from local Boards of 

 Health in my efforts to obtain local information, and in most of 

 these communities in which active work has been done, the 

 members of the Board officially and often individually, have 

 urged and supervised it. This is notably true of Newark and 

 other Essex County Boards and it seems proper that the fight 

 against this pest should belong to the sanitary authorities. 



It is recognized by the medical profession at large that the 

 species of Anopheles, because of their relation to malaria, are 

 dangerous to the public health, and in this view places in which 

 such species breed might fairly be considered nuisances subject 

 to abatement under the general powers of the Board. But it was 

 considered c[uestionable whether breeding pools for other mo- 

 squitoes, no matter how annoying or indirectly dangerous they 

 might be, could be brought under the same heading and, in every 

 case of an attempt to abolish a pool of that kind, the burden of 

 proof would be on the Board of Health to show that the mo- 

 squitoes bred there were really dangerous to the public health. In 

 consequence, Boards were slow to act and fearful of attempting 

 coercive measures which might not be upheld by the courts. At 

 Newark a marsh owner refused to allow his land to be drained 

 even at no expense to himself, and it was considered by counsel 

 that the Board could not safely go ahead without being open to 

 a charge of trespass. 



At a meeting of the mosquito conference at Newark this matter 

 was fully discussed and was referred to the legislative committee 

 with Dr. T. N. Gray, of East Orange, as chairman, to prepare 



