The Mosquito Must Go 9 



Mosquito Control Has Been A Paying Proposition on the 

 Metropolitan Meadows 



For proof of this fact one must look to the taxable values 

 in the areas concerned. Unfortunately it has not been possible 

 to make a complete study of all of them and we are limited 

 mainly to the consideration of what has occurred on the Newark 

 meadows, although some supplementary material has been glean- 

 ed from the conditions on the Kearney Township meadows. ' 



In Essex County as a whole, the taxable values from 1896 

 to 1918 inclusive, have shown a steady increase from 

 $187,000,000 to nearly $800,000,000. With the exception of 1906, 

 the differences in percentage of increase from year to year have 

 been small. In 1906 we find a 56 per cent increase, which is 

 probably 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 one 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 to 

 the present, in every 3^ear we find an increase, and throughout 

 the period we find an average increase of 24 per cent as com- 

 pared with an average increase of 8 per cent in the county for the 

 same period. 



In 1905, just preceding this upward trend, the State Experi- 

 ment Station began its effort to bring the salt-marsh mosquito 

 under control. Since that time, thanks to local interest which 

 finally culminated in the formation of the Essex County Mosqui- 

 to Extermination Commission, the work of treating the marshes 

 in such a fashion as to eliminate the breeding of this pest has 

 gone steadily forward. No one can escape the fact that this 

 large upward trend of the taxable values of the Essex County 

 salt marshes has been coincident with the progress of the work 

 against the salt-marsh mosquito. In view of the testimony from 

 factory owners and operators in this district, and in view of this 

 coincidence of mosquito-control work and large increases in 

 taxable values, it is hard to escape the conclusion that mosquito 

 control has played a considerable part in this increase in land 

 values. 



It should further be pointed out that the present yearly tax 

 income from the Essex County meadows is almost as large as 

 the total sum of money furnished by the state of New Jersey and 

 expended throughout the state from the year 1902 to the present 

 for salt-marsh mosquito control. It should also be said that the 



