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me, I have devoted myself primarily to ridding the State of an- 

 other pest. Some of you may not know what the State has been 

 doing in respect to controlling" forest fires, especially here in 

 South Jersey, directly with a view to bringing back to the lands 

 of this section material and taxable values, I think the State was 

 probably right in taking up this question of fire control before 

 it became actively interested in the question of mosquito control 

 — the one precedes the other in a natural way, but, having 

 achieved a considerable measure of success in that direction, not 

 complete by any means — we still have a long and hard fight 

 before us. The time, in my judgment, has come to consider very 

 seriously whether the State itself should not take up the question 

 of mosquito elimination as a broad policy. It was referred to 

 here yesterday as a question which so vitally affected the resort 

 interests that they themselves might very properly assume the 

 responsibility and cost. They probably won't, and I am not 

 sure that they ought to. 



Two or three things have been made very clear to my mind in 

 attending these sessions. The most important is that this State 

 is doing more than very many citizens of the State, and practi- 

 cally nobody outside, appreciates in the way of mosquito control. 

 Perhaps the greater part of it and at the present time I think the 

 important part is clone in organized communities in the suppres- 

 sion of the house mosquitoes. I think it is not clearly enough 

 expressed that we have two mosquito problems, one that of the 

 house mosquito, the other that of the salt-marsh mosquito. The 

 county organizations, many of them, are dealing with both. 

 Whether or not the county organization is sufficient to deal with 

 the problem at large is the question that now must be consid- 

 ered. Dr. Howard, who perhaps is recognized as the chief mos- 

 quito authority in the world, said last night that this State could 

 well afford to spend four or five hundred thousand dollars a 

 year for three or four years to get rid of this pest. I asked him 

 afterwards if he meant that four or five hundred thousand dol- 

 lars a year for three or four years was necessary, in his opinion, 

 to eliminate the salt-marsh mosquito, or all the mosquitoes. He 

 said he didn't mean that at all, that that was merely a general 



