REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 383 



imperatively indicated and where it paid for itself many times 

 over. 



The area from the New York and Long Branch Railroad 

 west to the end of the meadow at Grove Street on the south side 

 of the Elizabeth River has a number of breeding places where 

 no ditchmg nor filling has yet been done. The meadow here is 

 very narrow and could be easily drained into the Elizabeth 

 River. 



The stretch south of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to 

 Morse's Creek and from Arthur Kill to the woodland contains a 

 number of breeding places ; but none directly on the marsh itself. 

 The meadow is quite high, but the closer it gets to the mainland 

 the lower it becomes. Water remains here a large portion of 

 the time and breeding is almost continuous. This place will re- 

 c[uire a number of wide ditches into Morse's Creek and these 

 must take the small laterals that actually carry off the surface 

 water. 



Morse's Creek is the southern boundary of Elizabeth. 



It is interesting to note in this connection the importance of 

 the railroad works on the meadow drainage problem. Apparently 

 the companies have felt themselves free to build their embank- . 

 ments and tracks absolutely without any regard to the effect 

 upon the surrounding land and their operations have resulted, 

 on the Elizabeth meadow at least, in making matters much worse 

 than they were before so far as mosquito breeding is concerned. 



C. THE ARLINGTON PROBLEM. 



Such breeding places as occur in Arlington are mostly in wood- 

 land, a large portion of the town being yet fairly well tree- 

 covered. A very bad place is on the old Belleville Turnpike, just 

 northwest of the old copper mine, made up partly of w^oodland 

 pools and partly of fresh water swamp. It extends close to 

 Kearny Avenue and is particularly virulent in spring : later in- 

 spections in July and August found eveiy pool dry, and during 

 these months two days was sufficient at all times to dry up even 

 a heavy rain. In September the place fills again, and there is a 

 small brood of fall mosquitoes. 



A similar place is on the west side of the Rutherford Road, 

 about 1000 feet north of the Belleville Turnpike, where there 

 is heavy spring and light fall breeding, with a dry period during 

 the summer months. The species bred in both these territories 

 are the ordinary woodland species, chiefly canadensis, and they 



