9 2 



fraction of an acre, or it may be two or three acres, and these 

 men do not find sections of Northern New Jersey attractive be- 

 cause of the mosquito pest, and Northern New Jersey is inter- 

 ested, as is Southern New Jersey, in solving the problem. 



I see in the audience a representative of our Department of 

 Conservation and development. I notice he is very much inter- 

 ested in this problem. We have talked about it, and we have 

 agreed that if people in other States could be told that we are 

 organizing the work so that we shall get rid of mosquitoes, not 

 absolutely, but we shall get rid of them to the extent of eliminat- 

 ing them as a serious factor, and as a serious obstacle in develop- 

 ment; if we could say that we have organized and appropriated 

 funds so that all of these salt-marsh lands could be ditched, 

 within five or six years at an expenditure of perhaps a hundred 

 and fifty thousand dollars a year, what would such a statement 

 mean merely from the standpoint of advertising? 



The undertaking would be entirely feasible, for we have sur- 

 veyed the marsh lands and know the average cost of ditching 

 per acre, and the saving that may be brought about by the use 

 of improved machinery. 



So much for the economic standpoint. We find many import- 

 ant problems in New Jersey, and yet, as we think of them, we 

 come to feel that there is hardly a prdblem more important, 

 everything being considered, than that of eliminating the mos- 

 quito to the extent of preventing them from being an obstacle in 

 development. 



It is curious that those of us who have been in the work for 

 some years are now and then assailed with doubts. I know an in- 

 spector of one of the Mosquito Commissions in this State who 

 has been as painstaking and faithful as any man in this work. 

 He was ready to throw up his hands two or three years ago, and 

 for a good reason, because the old methods did not seem to be 

 adequate under exceptional conditions to meet the situation, but, 

 as in every work, new conditions offer new solutions, and new 

 methods have been suggested. 



I do not believe that he, at present, has any occasion to think 

 that, even under exceptional conditions, the problem cannot be 



