Proceedings of Eighth Annual Meeting 17 



(4) Creating an efficient mosquito fighting machine. 



(5) Gold digging for funds ! 



Contemporaneously with the work of Ashford, Gorgas and Reed, 

 through the inspiring enthusiasm of the late Dr. John B. Smith and a 

 few inspired men of Essex County, this project was launched in New 

 Jersey and received the recognition of our law makers in the passage 

 of the law of 1906, whereby Dr. Smith was enabled to carry on his 

 experiment : In 19 12 the Legislature enacted the mandatory law 

 under which operations, as at present, through county commissions, 

 are conducted. Year by year since then the work of ditching, filling, 

 levelling and oiling has been successfully prosecuted; — ditch by 

 ditch, acre by acre, pond by pond, meadow by meadow, thousands 

 of acres of water from stagnation brought into activity and circula- 

 tion; the devising of new methods for the care or construction of 

 basins at the corners of the avenues, the airing out of the waste 

 places of the swamps and fetching their miasma and pestilential flies 

 into the exterminating light and sparkle of running brooks or down 

 to the wash of the sea tides as they ebb and flow in this eternal 

 endeavor to be of service to the races of the earth, the work has gone 

 on with discernible results in the comfort and health of our people 

 and the increase in ratables in many localities. 



In considering this project : 



The history of extermination and control work in Porto Rico, 

 Cuba and Panama — and the great benefits that these historic events 

 brought to the people of the earth and the splendid lesson they 

 have taught humanity might profitably be reviewed, but time will 

 not permit. 



No statistics are necessary to show what already has been accom- 

 plished or how truly scientific is the method of procedure. The 

 consideration of this project also unrolls before us a map of the 

 State. New Jersey has an area of 7,576 square miles — length 167^ 

 miles; width 59 to 32 miles. The southern half . . . sloping 

 . . . to the Atlantic and the Delaware . . . has tidal marshes 

 to the extent of nearly 278,365 acres mostly still infested by mos- 

 quitoes. 



Cuba — 730 miles long; width, average 80 miles; area 43,319 

 square miles — mosquitoes under control. Porto Rico, mosquitoes 

 tinder control. Panama, mosquitoes under control. 



New Jersey's cities, and suburban towns and seashore resorts and 

 its agricultural areas — limited, restricted and circumscribed — as they 

 seem to be are all involved in this project. A glance at the map will 



