392 MOSQUITOES OF NORTH AMERICA 
regions, is in operation and needs no argument. Drainage on a small scale for 
the purpose of doing away with mosquitoes has been practiced for a long time. 
In “ Mosquitoes,” p. 198, Howard shows how, by an expenditure of $40 for 
drainage, in the summer of 1900, in a Maryland village, malaria was practically 
abolished, although the previous summer there had been one or more cases in 
every family in the district. 
One of the editors of the Scientific American, Mr. Beech, has given a good 
illustration of the good effect of drainage work prior to the general interest in 
mosquito destruction, which is quoted (loc. cit., pp. 208-209) as follows: 
“Tn the town of Stratford, Conn., where I have resided for the past forty-five 
years, we have been greatly plagued by swarms of mosquitoes, so great, in fact, 
that the ‘ Stratford mosquito’ became a well-known characteristic of Stratford. 
We have in the southern part of our town, bordering on the sound, several acres 
of marsh-land or meadow, which would become periodically overflowed with 
water in the summer and a tremendous breeding-ground for mosquitoes, and 
this plague to the town continued until about 1890-91, when a party from 
Bridgeport, Conn., purchased a large section of the meadows and began to pro- 
tect them by a dike, both on the north and south ends, which shut out the water. 
In addition to this, numerous drain ditches were made which helped to carry 
the water away. The result of this work made the land perfectly dry and spongy, 
so that after a rain no pools collected on the surface of the meadow and the 
creation of the mosquitoes was prevented. The transformation was so remark- 
able that people outside the town would hardly believe that it had been effected, 
and a year or two later the town voted a special appropriation of $2000 to the 
party who undertook to build the dike and render the meadows mosquito-proof. 
It had also the effect of placing on the market a large tract of land elevated from 
the sound, for residences, and as many as twenty-five summer residences have 
been built upon this land bordering on the sound, and the number is increasing 
each year. They are free from mosquitoes, so that the operation shows the 
economy and the benefit that will result by using some means for eliminating 
the mosquito-breeding pools.” 
A great deal of valuable drainage work has been done in the past few years in 
salt-marshes of the North Atlantic coast, and there is one instance of this on the 
Pacific coast. All had the direct idea of doing away with the salt-marsh mos- 
quitoes, which have unusual powers of flight and are able to proceed inland for 
many miles, thus annoying the inhabitants of a large extent of country. One 
of the first operations of this kind was conducted by the wealthy owners of Center 
Island off the north coast of Long Island, in Long Island Sound. This work 
led to the somewhat extensive work under the organization known as the North 
Shore Improvement Association, referred to elsewhere, and which included 
simple operations over a considerable distance along the north shore of Long 
Island. These operations took place in 1902-1903. Later, some excellent work 
was done at Lawrence, Long Island, and the following account, taken from the 
“Report of the [New York] State Entomologist,” Dr. E. P. Felt, for 1905, 
gives an excellent idea of methods and results: 
“A most striking illustration of this work is that given by Lawrence, L. I., 
which has amply demonstrated the feasibility of controlling the salt marsh mos- 
