148 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



of land on which there are mosquito breeding areas to abate the 

 nuisance. 



In another part of this report it will appear that a number of 

 communities have already made good use of this amendment and 

 it is safe to say that no greater step toward mosquito extermina- 

 tion has ever been taken in any community. 



If every local Board of Health in the State were to use to the 

 full extent the powers conferred in this amendment, no breeding 

 places would remain in a year or two. It is safe to say that this 

 will not occur, because, in the case of the salt marsh areas, the 

 w^ork necessary to make them mosquito safe would, in many 

 cases, greatly exceed the present value of the land, on which the 

 breeding places are found. 



The existence of this law, however, tends to bring the Board 

 of Health officers into contact with owners of dangerous areas 

 and that will, in itself, work for a uniform and reasonably strict 

 compliance with the law. The reports of Mr. Richards, of 

 Elizabeth, and Mr. Allen, of South ■ Orange, on a subsequent 

 page, will show some special applications of the law and will 

 indicate that for communities w^ithout the range of the salt marsh 

 species a perfect machinery already exists which is ready to be 

 put in motion whenever public sentiment demands it. 



