REPORT ON MOSQUITOES. 447 



The infested spots above referred to are on the upland and 

 along the railroad, the meadows, except at Port-an-Peck, being 

 found entirely free /rom larvae on September 27th, by Mr. 

 Brehme. 



Seabright, New Jersey, October 4th, 1904. 

 Prf. Jcliii B. Smith: 



Dear Sir — Your favor of of ist instant has been received. It gives me 

 great pleasure to state to you the result of the work done on Rumson Neck 

 during the season of 1904, and its effect upon mosquito breeding. Fortunately, 

 I have been able to give personal attention to this work, and have become 

 much intrested in it. 



The ditching done by Manahan in the early spring, covering the territory 

 from Kemp's estate to Seabright bridge, brought successful results ; but was 

 by no means thorough ; that is to say, many breeding pools were left un- 

 touched, and more or less breeding was going on in consequence. We were 

 fortunate at this juncture in securing the services of W. A. Duryea. and 

 have, by con.stant vigilance and hard work, destroyed every breeding place 

 in this region. This I can vouch for as the result of personal inspection. It 

 would seem a logical conclusion that if mosquitoes do not breed, they do not 

 exist ; certainly, they have been very scarce here this summer at any time, 

 but for the past two months practically none have been in evidence. 



We propose to continue the work next year and extend our borders, if 

 necessary, to provide against migration of the pest, which, however, does 

 not appear to have gone on to any great extent this year. 



Permit me to say that the residents of Rumson Neck owe you a debt of 

 gratitude for having last year called their attention to the possibility of 

 exterminating the mosquito and starting and directing the work that has 

 practically achieved that result. 



With kind regards, I am. 



Very trulv vours, 



(Signed) WM. E. STRONG. 



The breeding places left by the contractor and referred to in 

 the previous letter are those small depressions which are not al- 

 ways filled and readily escape detection until just the right com- 

 bination of weather and tide supplies them with water. It is 

 probably true that after a marsh has been drained by systematic 

 ditching there will always remain a few holes that, because of 

 some local peculiarity, do not dry out as readily as the rest of the 

 territory and, to obtain a perfect result, these must be watched 

 and filled as they develop. 



