Proceedings of Seventh Annual Meeting 13 



Fresh-water mosquito control was undertaken last year in Hud- 

 son, Bergen, Passaic, Essex, Union and Atlantic counties and was 

 begun in Morris. In Bergen, Passaic, Essex and Union counties a 

 large amount of fresh-water drainage has been put in, which con- 

 sisted mainly in regrading streams and ditches and in cutting new 

 ditches. 



Last summer, a population of over 2^ million and a land area of 

 1,888 square miles, were given a large measure of protection from 

 the mosquito pest. This was accomplished at a cost of approximate- 

 ly 12 cents per capita, or $125 per square mile, of the population and 

 area protected. Or to put it another way, the cost was about 11 

 cents per $1,000 of ratables in the protected area. 



President Hudson : The next speaker, Dr. L. O. Howard, was 

 formerly associated with one of our very good brethren in the work, 

 Mr. Spencer Miller, and I thought it would be fitting if he would 

 introduce Dr. Howard to the audience. 



Mr. Spencer Miller (South Orange) : Mr. Chairman, ladies 

 and gentlemen : — It is a great surprise that this honor should be 

 thrust upon me ; but seeing Dr. Howard this evening reminded me 

 of a number of things that happened a good many years ago and 

 as they bear on the subject I want to tell you one or two of them. 



I went out to South Orange to build a house about twenty-five 

 years ago and got it started in April, but the miosquitoes nearly 

 drove away my men, some of whom I had imported from New Eng- 

 land. Had I not started that house I should never have bought an 

 acre of land in South Orange ; and the only way I could content 

 myself at all in regard to the matter was by observing that somehow 

 or other my neighbors had found a way to live through the mosquito 

 pest. I never was so tormented, the men were never so tormented. 

 Those who are living in the present comparatively mosquitoless 

 days cannot remember what that pest of mosquitoes meant. I was 

 foolish enough at that time to say that there is an answer to this 

 problem and mosquitoes can be gotten rid of, and for that I have 

 received a good deal of ridicule. They had always been here and 

 they always would be here. However, I did not seem to make any 

 headway. I found myself inventing machines in the way of an ex- 

 haust fan that was going to be near my porch and have some elec- 

 tric lights in it ; I was going to start up this fan and as they would 

 all fly toward the light I was going to take them in and grind them up. 



In the winter of 1901, while on a trip to Cornell University, I 



