Proceedings of Seventh Annual Meeting 



8i 



During 1918 the county mosquito extermination commissions spent 

 $227,356. This sum is but 35 per cent of the $639,323.00 which 

 could legally have been spent by these commissions, and only 26 per 

 cent of the $850,539.00 which could lawfully have been expended 

 for mosquito work by the twenty-one counties of the state. 



The cost of the control work by the commissions was about 10 

 cents per $1,000 of ratables for the eleven active counties as a whole. 



A summer population of 2,332,613 was given some measure of 

 protection from the mosquito pest at a cost of approximately 11 

 cents per capita. If the small state appropriation is added to the 

 sum spent by the counties, the cost is slightly less than 12 cents per 

 capita. 



The total land area given some protection was 1,888 square miles, 

 25 per cent of the land surface of the state. The cost per square mile 

 was about $120.00, or, if the state appropriation is added to the 

 sum spent by the counties, $125.00. 



Because in their reports, some counties include overhead and some 

 do not, and because it is sometimes difficult to estimate the number 

 of acres drained, the exact cost of salt-marsh drainage for 1918 can- 

 not be given. The average figure, including overhead, was probably 

 in the neighborhood of $6.00 per acre. 



Salt-marsh drainage systems were maintained during 1918 on 

 80,154 acres at an average cost of 38 or 40 cents per acre. 



The secretary's assistant regrets that, on account of different 

 systems of bookkeeping in use by the various commissions, it was 

 impossible to collect more accurate statistics concerning matters in 

 regard to the data called for by Mr. Delaney's resolution. Indeed, in 

 some instances it was hardly possible to comply with the directions 

 of the resolution at all. In this connection, it may not be out of 

 place here to announce that an informal committee has been appoint- 

 ed to plan and submit a uniform system of bookkeeping to the county 

 commissions. 



President Hudson : The report of the secretary will be received 

 and the next business will be that of reading the report of the 

 treasurer. 



