202 MOSQUITOES 



plans and proposals, found that tlie marsh could be ren- 

 dered suitable for occupation at a contract cost not ex- 

 ceeding $300 per acre, an amount which, when compared 

 with the selling- price of city lots in Newark, is very small. 

 Drainage not for city purposes, however, Mr. Vermeule 

 shows, can be done for about $93 per acre. This would 

 put the land in condition for agriculture or grazing. He 

 shows that in Nova Scotia, drained marsh-lands sell for 

 $150 to $200 an acre for agricultural i^urposes only, and 

 that the diked meadows in Salem and Cumberland Coun- 

 ties in New Jersey have always been worth several times 

 as much as improved upland. "As much as fifty-five 

 bushels of wheat i^er acre, and heavy crops of haj^ are 

 raised on them. A moderate amount of drained tide- 

 marsh attached to a farm in that vicinity enhances the 

 value of the farm." He urges that a private corporation, 

 if it can secure a sufficiently large area to begin opera- 

 tions, and can drain it and put a small portion under cul- 

 tivation as a demonstration, could promptly lease the 

 rest for enough money to give a fair return on the invest- 

 ment, and the appreciation in the value of the land in 

 the course of a few years, since it is so near New York, 

 would undoubtedly make the venture profitable. 



An editorial in the New Jersey Adrerfiser of February 

 9, 1901, advocates work under the Board of Trade against 

 mosquito-breeding places. The reasons are summed up 

 well in the following words : 



'' There is a sanitary reason for their extirpation. They 

 injure property for sale, so there is a good economic rea- 

 son. They afflict the healthy, and torment the sick, and 



