8o 



we have added to our purposes through this Association. It 

 has given an added interest to the work, and to-day I think, in 

 popular favor, our work is in a stronger position than, it ever 

 has been before. 



Those of us who have been in the work since its incep- 

 tion are not too sanguine of the immediate results. As was 

 stated this afternoon, we have had to educate ourselves. We 

 have had to discard old methods as newer ones seemed to be 

 more practicable, and we have had to learn from others and 

 from each other what seemed to be the best methods to pursue. 



Always there has been more or less prejudice in the popular 

 mind — in the early days absolute ridicule, to-day kind of a 

 half belief — so that we have had our difficulties in the Legisla- 

 ture. Oftentimes we have had as much difficulty handling the 

 legislators at Trenton as we have dealing with the mosquitoes in 

 the breeding season. 



So much for a resume of the work as we carried it on in the 

 State of New Jersey. We are all hopeful and we believe in 

 the work, have absolute faith that it is possible to reduce mos- 

 quitoes to a point where they are not troublesome. 



A paper on the "Progress of Mosquito Extermination in New 

 Jersey" naturally would involve a brief historical sketch of the 

 work as it has progressed in its various phases. 



You are all more or less familiar with this aspect of the 

 mosquito question, and I have decided instead to place before you 

 some extracts culled from the literature of early times bearing 

 upon the presence of, and annoyance caused by, mosquitoes to the 

 early settlers and travelers in our State. This task has been made 

 easy for me by the courtesy of Dr. William S. Disbrow, of 

 Newark, who has placed in my hands material gathered by him 

 after painstaking search. The matter has never been published 

 and for this reason I am especially anxious to have it on record. 



1627. Indians of New Jersey, Max Schalisch — New Sweden 

 near mouth o>f the Delaware, 



"Swedes built a fort called Mockeborg, because of the numberless mosqui- 

 toes infesting the region." 



