MALARIA AND AGRICULTURE 323 
Government to make preliminary drainage surveys in the most prominent of 
these potentially productive regions. The following statement concerning the 
effect of malaria on the progress of this work has been made to the writer by 
Dr. George Otis Smith, director of the United States Geological Survey : 
“*Tn one of the Southern States 11 topographic parties have been at work 
during the past field season. The full quota for these parties would be 55 men, 
but I believe that something over 100 men have been employed at different times 
during the season. While I have not exact figures before me, I feel warranted 
in the statement that at least 95 per cent of these employees have been sick, for 
periods ranging from a few days up to two weeks, in the hospital. Many of them 
have been able later to return to work, but at least 30 per cent had to leave the 
field permanently. By reason of this sickness the efficiency of the parties was 
reduced, at a very conservative estimate, by 25 per cent. 
“¢Tn my recent visit in this field I found one man sick in each of the parties I 
saw and one man who had just returned from the hospital leaving the field for 
good. A similar state of things was reported from the other parties. I regard 
the sickness as practically all of a malarial nature, as extreme care was taken 
in all the camps to use nothing but boiled water except in a few instances where 
artesian water from great depths was available. In all the camps the tents have 
been screened, and in every case where the topographer has lived for any time 
“on the country ” there has been infection. As illustrating the value of the 
precautions generally taken by our camp parties, I might cite the fact that last 
year in West Virginia with 30 men living in camp, with typhoid fever prevalent 
in the neighborhood, no cases developed, while with 6 men living on the country 
where the same care could not be taken regarding the water supply, two cases of 
typhoid developed.’ 
“Tn estimating the weight of Doctor Smith’s statement, it must be borne in 
mind that the men of his field parties are exceptionally intelligent and prepared 
to take all ordinary precautions. 
“Throughout the region in question malaria is practically universal. The 
railroads suffer, and at the stations throughout the territory it is practically im- 
possible to keep operators steadily at work. This reduction in efficiency in the 
surveying parties and in the local railroad officials is moreover probably very 
considerably less than the reduction in the earning capacity of the entire popu- 
lation, which, however, is necessarily scanty. 
“Tn an excellent paper entitled ‘The relation of malaria to agricultural and 
other industries of the South, published in the Popular Science Monthly for 
April, 1903, Prof. Glenn W. Herrick, then of the College of Agriculture of 
Mississippi, after a consideration of the whole field, concludes that malaria is 
responsible for more sickness among the white population of the South than any 
disease to which it is now subject. The following forcible statement referring 
to the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina 
is in Professor Herrick’s words: 
“ ¢ We must now consider briefly what 635,000 or a million cases of chills and 
fevers in one year mean. It is a self-evident truth that it means well for the 
physician. But for laboring men it means an immense loss of their time to- 
gether with the doctors’ fees in many instances. If members of their families 
other than themselves be affected, 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 greatest 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 noncultivation or imperfect cultivation of thousands of acres of valuable land. 
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