g6 N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 



the line of least resistance, requires no mechanical appliances, 

 and needs no supplementary oiling when properly done. 



Mosquito ditching ought not to cost on the average more than 

 $25 an acre on the worst marshes, including superintendence, 

 and on some should be done for considerably less. I am not 

 now, nor have I ever been, in favor of emphasizing the cheap- 

 ness of the work. Thorough drainage would be remarkably 

 cheap at the figure given, but all costs are comparative. One 

 man may buy a suit of clothes for $5, another for $100, and 

 neither have a bargain, while still another might purchase a 

 medium-priced suit which would be of excellent value for him 

 and afford a living profit to the merchant. Certainly we cannot 

 always expect to get our work done for less than it costs to do it. 

 ,jThe laborer is worthy of his hire in this as in every other work. 



It is difficult to compute the cash value of this work, but it is 

 certainly enormous in comparison with its cost. We have all 

 been too prone to emphasize the health and comfort features. 

 Both, of course, are of the very highest importance, I may even 

 say of paramount importance, but so constituted is the average 

 man that unless personally suffering from ill health or discom- 

 fort, it is hard for him to visualize the latent menace in the mos- 

 quito. He has, however, been trained to visualize prospective 

 profits, and when you show him highly desirable home sites, save 

 for the mosquito nuisance, and tell him that the drainage of the 

 salt marsh a mile or two miles or even five miles away will do 

 away with that objection, he readily grasps the necessity of 

 having it done at once. Unfortunately, it is still true that where 

 a man's treasure is, there his heart is also. 



Assuming that the foregoing statement is a fact, would it not 

 be well, gentlemen, when seeking funds with which to do this 

 work, to ring the changes on the immense material benefits 

 which will follow increased healthfulness and comfortable sur- 

 roundings? Show your legislature, your selectmen, your local 

 governing bodies that money so spent is not given away or lost., 

 or wasted, but is a very profitable investment, paying larger 

 dividends than any other public work in which the citizens' 

 money could be placed. 



