Proceedings of Eighth Annual Meeting 23 



big enterprise. We must bring repeatedly to the people of New 

 Jersey the lesson that the mosquito trouble may be controlled and 

 held in check. 



The wonderful liberality with which the United States provided 

 for health purposes at the time of building the Panama Canal reveals 

 to us how discouraging is our outlook, and how utterly inadequate' 

 are our present financial resources for burying forward the com- 

 pletion of this work in New Jersey. In the Canal region $4,000,- 

 000.00 went for sanitation proper. Now, when we remember that 

 the area of that part of the Canal Zone under active sanitary control 

 amounts to only 1200 acres, it will be understood how inadequate 

 are our budgets for prosecuting mosquito control work over marsh 

 lands alone totalling hundreds of thousands of acres. 



The pretty well established inference or conclusion most of us 

 carry in our minds that the entire Canal Zone was cleaned up and 

 converted from an untamed jungle into a place fit for the residence 

 of men "is erroneous." As a matter of fact, except for the 1200 

 acres in the settlements along the canal and the few little clearings 

 made by the negroes for their tiny yam patches, all of the 278,000 

 acres of the Canal Zone area lie outside of the sanitary district. 



Go on ditching of course. As some one has said **so treat the 

 salt marshes that the breeding of mosquitoes on them will be pre- 

 vented ; — so open up the salt marsh with ditching that all water upon 

 it will rise and fall with the tide and afford easy access for the killi- 

 fish, the mosquitoes' greatest natural enemy, to reach and destroy the 

 larva." 



Expedite the work by hurrying this ditching to completion. But 

 how hurry most effectively? By more legislation? Yes. 



Through the legislature the State Board of Health makes it a 

 misdemeanor on the part of any citizen, or property owner after a 

 given time to maintain a breeding spot. 



The present law is sufficient only unto the measure of the present 

 law makers' sense of liberality. What we want is greater liberality 

 in the making up of the budget for mosquito control work. 



There still remains some half of our work to be done. 



It is hopeless to expect additional funds from the State without a 

 bond issue. 



Then why not a bond issue now? 



Yes, bond the state for $1,000,000. This would be done by the 

 usual procedure of having a bill drawn creating a state liability 

 under approval of the legislature, for the specific purpose of mos- 



