The Mosquitoes of New Jersey 221 



With these facts in mind, the reader should note the correlation 

 between drainage and the absence of mosquitoes. Opposite the 

 drained marsh, unless within flight range of the undrained areas, 

 the salt-marsh mosquitoes caught were few or none, while along 

 side of the undrained marsh the catch was many times larger. 



With few exceptions the newspapers throughout the state have 

 supported and expressed appreciation of the work and have opposed 

 any emasculating of the laws governing it. Practically without ex- 

 ception the newspapers located within the limits of counties where 

 the work is going on have heartily supported the effort. 



Effect on Industry 



The work of the mosquito control has now gone far enough to 

 show some striking results in the way of industrial development. 



In Essex County, as a whole, the increase in taxable values from 

 1896 to 1918, inclusive, has shown a steady increase from 187 mil- 

 lion to nearly 800 million. With the exception of 1906, the differ- 

 ences in percentage of increase from year to year have been so 

 small as to render them attributable to slight changes in property 

 classification. In 1906 we find a 56 per cent increase which is prob- 

 ably due to the inclusion of railway properties. On the Newark 

 meadows, however, we find a very different story. In the period 

 from 1896 to 1905, inclusive, there was either no increase in ratables 

 at all, or only a fraction of i per cent. The sharp increase in 

 1906 is probably due to the same cause as the increase in the county 

 as a whole ; but from 1906 on to the present, in every year we find 

 an increase, and throughout the period we find an average increase 

 of 25 per cent, as compared with an average increase of 8 per cent 

 in the county for the same period. 



Table 6 gives the total ratables (net valuation taxable) for Essex 

 County for each year, with the annual per cent of increase, from 

 1896 to 1918, inclusive, and gives by years the total ratables of the 

 Newark meadows, from 1896 to 1919, inclusive. 



The increase in valuations for Essex County from 1905 to 1918 

 is 380 per cent ; the increase in the ratables of the Newark meadows 

 for the same period is 31 17 per cent, or more than 8 times the in- 

 crease for the county. 



In 1905. just preceding this upward trend, the state and local au- 

 thorities began their efforts to bring the salt-marsh mosquito under 

 control. Since that time, thanks to local interest which finally cul- 

 minated in the formation of the Essex County Mosquito Exter- 



