loo Proceedings of Ninth Annuai, Meeting 



In August the work of the secretary and stenographer were 

 combined, thus saving v$2,ooo.oo a year, and Hmiting the office 

 force to the chief engineer and secretary. 



From 1916 to 1921, inclusive, the commission has spent $321,- 

 772.19 for mosquito control, and the county has increased in 

 assessed valuation approximately $85,ooo,cm30.oo. While we do 

 not claim that this increase is entirely due to mosquito control, the 

 normal increase, with the mosquito still rampant, would not have 

 been one-quarter of that amount. 



The largest percentage of the increased valuation has been in 

 the town of Hempstead, on the south side of the county, adjoining 

 19,000 acres of salt marsh lands. This acreag-e was breeding 

 enough mosquitoes to invade the entire 300 square miles of the 

 county in great hordes, before the marshlands were ditched and 

 drained, and the mosquitoes exterminated by the commission. 



The commission has ditched all the salt m.arsh areas on the 

 north shore, approximately 800 acres, and of the 19,000 acres 

 on the south shore 16,500 acres are now under control. Between 

 five and six million feet of ditches have been installed, draining 

 an area fifteen miles long. 



During the year 1921 building increased very rapidly along 

 the drained marshlands. A bungalow city was built on the west 

 end of Long Beach. In the village of Lynbrook more than 400 

 houses were built, in Baldwin over 200, and in Freeport, the 

 largest village in the county, with hundreds of acres of marsh- 

 lands forming the southern section, 631 new buildings were 

 erected. 



Dr. F. L. Keays, of Great Neck, now a member of the com- 

 mission, has stated that Great Neck could not progress, and that 

 people moved from the village on account of the prevalence of 

 malaria, but that there had been a turn in the tide in their favor 

 since the commission started operations. 



Land values have increased while taxes have decreased. Since 

 the year 19 19 the tax rate in the town of Hempstead have been 

 lowered twelve points. 



Mosquito extermination has been a success wherever it has 

 been undertaken" but mosquitoes cannot be exterminated by "hot 

 air," it takes grit and greenbacks. 



Secretary Headi.ee — Mr. Chairman, may I say to the speak- 

 ers who have been describing work outside of our own state that 

 we have a nutty problem with us in counties where the work is 

 on a county-wide basis, and it is this : 



Heavy rainfall will multiply the possible breeding water 

 surface by at least 100 per cent. In other words, the breeding 



