Proceedings op^ Fifth Annuai. Meeting 77 



surveys, tests and investigations have been carried on by the state 

 and disprove absolutely all those conclusions with respect to the 

 major part, at least, of the area. Then we have in the same sec- 

 tion about 600,000 acres of fallow land, exclusive of marshes, 

 whose present average value is estimated at $20 per acre. If 

 that shall be increased to an average of only $100 per acre, the 

 total gain is $48,000,000. Adding those together we have $107,- 

 000,000 as the sum that should be added to our farm land values 

 in the mosquito district. 



Turning to the shore, the official returns for 191 5 show that 

 all the property, real and personal, within the communities next 

 to the coast was then assessed at $247,328,490, and the state 

 maps indicate that only 10 per cent of the available territory is 

 occupied. On that basis little is risked in assuming that $200,- 

 000,000 can be added to the ratables there. 



There remain the very intangible values which attach to unde- 

 veloped or partly developed, suburban and industrial property; 

 part of it in the towns adjacent to the resorts and to the farming 

 sections, a larger part — in value, not in area — within the metro- 

 politan districts. Here one opinion is about as good as another, 

 but I cannot think that much is risked in estimating that the 

 increases which would follow mosquito control would easily 

 amount to another $200,000,000. 



All this gives a total of $507,000,000, or say an even five hun- 

 dred millions; and you will observe that I do not include any- 

 thing for the increased value of the drained marshes themselves. 

 No one who listened to the paper that Mr. Vermeule read here 

 last year can doubt the ultimate great worth of these lands, espe- 

 cially for trucking and dairying, but for the present I prefer to 

 leave all that out of the account. We surely must get rid of 

 the mosquitoes before the marshes themselves can be populated. 



In that connection I may say that only a few days ago I had a 

 letter from a Texan asking whether it was not possible to provide 

 pasturage, on what he termed the celebrated pasture lands of New 

 Jersey, for the starving cattle of the State of Texas, the starva- 

 tion having been brought about by extraordinarily prolonged 

 drought. Of course it was impossible, in the presence of Texas 



