78 N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



fever and certain other conditions, to say nothing about our own 

 condition here, to act on that recommendation or suggestion; 

 but it certainly does raise the question, are not those mosquito 

 marshes in that very one respect capable of being made a part 

 of our food-producing outfit? 



Of course the time element must be considered. Not to be 

 too sanguine, it is best to assume that the gains indicated can be 

 realized in twenty years, or in 1936. Are the figures reasonable? 

 To answer this question we have the tax records. They show 

 that for 1916 the ratables aggregated $2,688,321,240 — some- 

 thing over 200 per cent over the total for 1897. By constructing 

 a graphic curve in the customary way we find that twenty years 

 hence, or in 1938, the ratables may be expected to total about 

 $4,800,000,000. 



But you will say that this is normal growth and has no refer- 

 ence to tiie mosquitoes. That is partly true and partly not true, 

 for the annual figures show an accelerated increase in several 

 coimties in which mosquito control is well forward. To get a 

 little nearer the true situation let us see what the figures are for 

 the less active section. Leaving out of the account Bergen, 

 Essex, Hudson, Plassaic and Union counties, we find that the 

 other sixteen counties returned $302,063,367 in 1897 and $761,- 

 773,089 in 19 1 6 — an increase of only 152 per cent against 277 

 per cent for the five metropolitan counties. Projecting these 

 figures as in the former instance, it appears that the whole state 

 outside the five named counties will return in 1936 no more than 

 $1,400,000,000. Of course that is a tidy sum, especially when 

 it is remembered that twenty years ago the total for the entire 

 state was only a little more than half as much. On the other 

 hand, it should be clear that we ought to do a great deal better 

 than we are doing. 



Look at the case in another way. The assessors' returns show 

 that in 27 entire townships in 7 counties, with an aggregate of 

 over a million acres, the average assessed land value is less than 

 $10 per acre; that the entire upland in the County of Burlington, 

 town sites, farms and all, has an average valuation of $21 per 

 acre ; and that one-eighth of the whole state is not assessed at all, 



