ECONOMIC LOSS THROUGH INSECTS 



739 



Georgia, and South Carolina is in Pro- 

 fessor Herrick's words : 



"We must. now consider briefly what 

 635,000 or a million cases of chills and 

 fevers in one year mean. For laboring 

 men it means an immense loss of their 

 time together with the doctors' fees in 

 man}' instances. If members of their 

 families other than themselves be af- 

 fected, it may also mean a loss of time 

 together with the doctors' fees. For the 

 ■employer it means the loss of labor at a 

 time perhaps when it would be of great- 

 est value. If it does not mean the actual 

 loss of labor to the employer it will mean 

 a loss in the efficiency of his labor. To 

 the farmers it may mean the loss of their 

 crops by want of cultivation. It will 

 always mean the non-cultivation or imper- 

 fect cultivation of thousands of acres of 

 valuable land. It means a listless activ- 

 ity in the world's work that counts might- 

 ily against the wealth-producing power 

 of the people. Finally it means from 

 two to five million or more days of sick- 

 ness, with all its attendant distress, pain 

 of bodv, and mental depression to some 

 unfortunate individuals of those five 

 states." 



OUR BEST FARMING LAND UNTOUCHED 

 BECAUSE OF MALARIA 



Referring to the Delta region in Mis- 

 sissippi, which lies along the Mississippi 

 River in the western part of the State of 

 Mississippi, extending from the mouth of 

 the Yazoo River north nearly to the Ten- 

 nessee line, Herrick says that it is the 

 second best farming land in the world, 

 having only one rival, and that is the val- 

 ley of the Nile. 



"Still," says Herrick, "this land today, 

 or at least much of it, can be bought at 

 ten to twenty dollars an acre. Thou- 

 sands of acres in this region are still cov- 

 ered with the primeval forest, and the 

 bears and deer still roaming there offer 

 splendid opportunities for the chase, as 

 evidenced by the late visit of our Chief 

 Executive to those regions for the pur- 

 pose of hunting. Why is not this land 

 thickly settled ? And why is it not worth 

 from two to five hundred dollars an acre? 



If it produces from one to two or more 

 bales of cotton to an acre, and it does, it 

 ought to be worth the above-named fig- 

 ures. A bale of cotton to the acre can 

 be produced for thirteen dollars, leaving 

 a net profit of twenty to forty dollars for 

 each bale, or forty to eighty or more dol- 

 lars for each acre of land cultivated. 

 Moreover, this land has been doing that 

 for years, and will do it for years to come, 

 without the addition of one dollar's worth 

 of fertilizer. Land that will produce a 

 net profit of forty to eighty dollars an 

 acre is a splendid investment at one, two, 

 or even three hundred dollars an acre. 

 Yet this land does not sell in the market 

 for anything like so much, because the 

 demand is not sufficient, for white people 

 positively object to living in the Delta on 

 account of malarial chills and fevers. 



"A man said to me not long ago that he 

 would go to the Delta that day if he were 

 sure that his own life or the lives of the 

 members of his family would not be 

 shortened thereby. There are thousands 

 exactly like him, and the only reason that 

 these thousands do not go there to buy 

 lands and make homes is on account of 

 chills and fevers. But there is a time 

 coming, and that not far distant, when 

 malaria in the Delta will not menace the 

 would-be inhabitants. When that time 

 comes it will be the richest and most pop- 

 ulous region in the United States." 



RAVAGES OF MALARIA EASILY PREVENT- 

 ABLE 



Malaria is a preventable disease. It is 

 possible for the human species to live and 

 to thrive and to produce in malarious re- 

 gions, but at a very considerable incon- 

 venience and expense. The Italian in- 

 vestigators, and especially Celli and his 

 staff, have shown that by screening the 

 huts of the peasants on the Roman Cam- 

 pagna and by furnishing field laborers 

 with veils and gloves when exposed to 

 the night air, it is possible even in that 

 famous hotbed of malaria to conduct 

 farming operations with a minimum of 

 trouble from the disease. Moreover, 

 Koch and his assistants in German East 

 Africa have shown that by stamping out 



