Proceedings of Sixth Annual Meeting 95 



commissions, and with that of the State Experiment Station by 

 the fact that the Director of the State Experiment Station was 

 ex-officio member of every county commission, and by the further 

 fact that it was his duty to pass upon plans and moneys according 

 to which, and with which, the County Mosquito Extermination 

 Commission does its work. 



With the completion of the initial drainage, maintenance has 

 been, and in all probability will continue to be made a charge upon 

 local county funds. 



After the above plans and estimates were prepared, a meeting 

 was called to discuss them and also make an inspection of drained 

 meadows to see the results of the ditching already installed and 

 get an idea of the possibilities of the ditching machines then in 

 use. The representatives of the two loading companies were con- 

 vinced of the possibilities of mosquito elimination, but were not so 

 sure as to the procuring of necessary funds. The Commissions in 

 the counties interested were willing to expend the proportion of their 

 appropriation that they had been spending on salt marsh drainage, 

 and the Experiment Station agreed to use all money then available 

 for ditching in this area. This was but a drop in the bucket, and left 

 most of the expense to be borne by the two loading companies, 

 which was not at all satisfactory. However, they both agreed 

 to place a request in the hands of the Ordnance Department or the 

 Housing Committee at Washington, with an earnest appeal for their 

 assistance. We went further by preparing duplicate sets of plans 

 and specifications and forv\^arding same with a personal request 

 from the President of the Atlantic County Commission to Secretary 

 of War Baker, Surgeon General Gorgas, and Mr. Charles M. 

 Schwab. 



Replies were received from all, endorsing the plan and promising 

 to spare no effort to secure a satisfactory ruling from the proper 

 committee. 



Half of the 1918 mosquito season had passed when we received a 

 call from Captain Tucker, who was attached to the office of Surgeon 

 General Gorgas. He had with himi a set of plans and specifications 

 that we had spent so much time in preparing, and a message from his 

 office. It was to the effect that every effort would be made to free the 

 munition plants and cantonments of the mosquito pest raised on 

 \hose grounds in fresh water, but the hordes of mosquitotss raised 



