The Mosquitoes of New Jersey 223 



Probably other instances equally or more striking could be found, 

 did time permit the making of the necessary studies. One would be 

 especially likely to find instances in that portion of the shore re- 

 claimed within the past half-dozen years. 



One can gain a pretty good notion of the effect of mosquito sup- 

 pression on the development of property by driving southward along 

 the coast from Jersey City. At the points where the mosquito pest 

 assumes its original strength, the houses and other buildings, with a 

 few exceptions, take on a weather-beaten and tumble-down appear- 

 ance, and the farms exhibit a neglected look. Even in the cursory 

 examination such a trip affords, there is clear evidence that there is 

 less good farming in the districts that are still heavily infested than 

 in sections that have been rendered practically free of the mosquito 

 pest. 



Cost of Mosquito Suppression in New Jersey 



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

 an attempt to summarize its cost. 



Without doubt the cost of mosquito control per square mile of 

 area increases with the density of population, because every family, 

 through the employment of water-holding receptacles, increases the 

 ability of a given amount of land surface to produce mosquitoes 

 both in the actual water-breeding surface and through pollution. At 

 the same time, of course, natural breeding places are reduced in 

 area through draining and filling incident to agricultural, industrial, 

 and urban development. But such areas as are left are rendered 

 more prolific producers through pollution with human and animal 

 waste. Theoretically, the state should be reached when the sani- 

 tary arrangements incident to the maintenance of the health of ex- 

 tremely dense populations should almost, if not quite, eliminate all 

 breeding places for mosquitoes. Nowhere in New Jersey has this 

 stage been even approximated. 



From table 8 it is evident that, while the total cost per 

 square mile increases with the density of the population, the per 

 capita cost and the percentage charge against taxable values decreas- 

 es as the population increases. 



The geography of each county differs to such an extent that one 

 cannot compare the charges for the work in one county with those in 

 another except in the most general way. 



In table 9 the percentages devoted to each type of work 

 are interesting. Of course, the prime object in every county is, af- 



