i5 



New Jersey in that fine art. Whether this be true or not, there 

 is no question as to the mosquitoes which are natives of Hudson 

 County. These clever insects show their political instinct as soon 

 as they are able to fly by moving directly to the west across the 

 county line into Essex, and extract a poll tax in blood from every 

 inhabitant of that county. Should they fly to the east the in- 

 habitants would rise in their wrath and exterminate these mos- 

 quitoes. However, in a very short time this will be but a matter 

 of history, because Mr. Delaney, of Hudson County, will tell us 

 in a few minutes how he proposes by means of pumps to dry the 

 meadows of his county so completely that nothing will be seen 

 of them but the cloud of dust which will rise from, the meadows. 



I do hope that everyone will realize and be duly impressed with 

 the fact that there is still a vast amount of work to be done on 

 the meadows within five counties shown on the map, and that 

 this means millions of feet of new ditching, miles of dikes, hun- 

 dreds of tide-gates, and many pumping* stations. The figures 

 already given show that up to date not one-half of the required 

 ditching has been done, and the diking has only been started, 

 and, except for Mr. Delaney' s demonstration plants, the pump- 

 ing is still a matter of the future. 



With sufficient funds available it would be possible to com- 

 plete all this work within one or two years, but we all know that 

 the money is not forthcoming, and the problem before the County 

 Commissions and the director of the State Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station is to get the best results for every dollar appro- 

 priated for the extermination of mosquitoes. I firmly believe 

 that trie Cbmmissions cannot use their available funds to better 

 advantage than in the construction of permanent drainage works 

 on the meadows, consisting of ditches, dikes, tide-gates and 

 pumps, and that it would pay in the end to abandon, or at least 

 reduce to a minimum, the upland work until the entire salt-marsh 

 area is under control. 



The President — I will announce the following committees : 



Committee on Nominations — Mr. Robert F. Engle, of Ocean ; 

 Dr. William M. Pollard, of Atlantic, and Mr. William Delaney, 

 of Hudson. 



