78 



made to us in different ways of the possibility of utilizing the 

 bat in New Jersey and in our northern climate as a means of 

 exterminating mosquitoes. These careful investigations will no 

 doubt dispose of that proposition as solving our troubles. 



(Dr. W. E. Dlarnall, Vice-President, takes the chair.) 



Chairman Darnaix — The next paper on the program is 

 "The Progress of Mosquito Control Work in New Jersey," by 

 Dr. Ralph H. Hunt, of East Orange. 



Dr. Hunt — I thought, in first thinking of the subject of the 

 paper, that I would go over the progress of mosquito extermina- 

 tion work as it has been carried on in the State, but it would seem 

 to me a matter of bringing a mass of detail before you which 

 already is well known. We might have started, perhaps, with 

 the visit of Dr. Howard to South Orange in 1901, and with that 

 first report of the Village Improvement Society of South Orange, 

 under the leadership of Mr. Spencer Miller, a member of our 

 Commission at the present time. They made their first report 

 in. 1902 of mosquito 1 extermination work which was carried on in 

 1 901 . From that we might go through the wonderful investi- 

 gations of Dr. John B>. Smith, of our State Experiment Station, 

 who 1 first delved into the life habits of the mosquitoes, which are 

 our worst pests to-day. Up to> that time there was no exact 

 knowledge or no knowledge at all of the wonderful flight of salt- 

 marsh breeding species. It was demonstrated at that time that 

 work, however intensive and varied, could not eradicate mos- 

 quitoes breeding at a point forty miles from the territory where 

 the work was done. You can see what an impetus this gave to 

 mosquito work. That work was all born right here in New Jer- 

 sey, and we all ought to be proud of it. Professor Smith, after 

 determining these facts, found it somewhat difficult to obtain a 

 hearing. I have had access to some literature which is very 

 interesting, and I notice in one place that the President of the 

 Newark Board of Trade labored with considerable difficulty with 

 his organization to obtain a ten-minute talk from Dr. Smith on 

 the possibilities of mosquito control. It was not very long after 

 that before Professor Smith could obtain a hearing anywhere 



