N. J. Mosquito Extermination Association 119 



started work in 191 5 with 40,000 acres of salt marsh from 

 which to ehminate breeding, and with the appropriations we 

 have had, we think we have about as much footage cut as any 

 of the other commissions and at as low a cost. 



We have something like 700 miles of ditches, whatever that 

 may mean to the average person. We started to clean them 

 early in the spring and finished them at an expense of about 

 $1,200. We have in Ocean County a lot of pools that are usually 

 permanent and which contain fish. During the dry spell last 

 May and June these pools dried up and the fish died. Shortly 

 afterward we had a tide just high enough tO' flow over the top 

 of the meadows, percolate thru the grass and fill the pools. If 

 there had been a real good storm tide, we would have been 

 better off. The result was we had a' fine crop of mosquitoes 

 early in the season all along the shore. The flight didn't go 

 very far, but they annoyed people between the salt marsh and 

 the upland. Some people might say we had a rather bad year 

 for mosquitoes, but from a hotel standpoint, from a cottage 

 standpoint, from the standpoint of those located reasonably 

 near the ocean, we were practically free from mosquitoes last 

 year. 



Some of you may not be just familiar with the geography of 

 our county. (Points tO' map.) Here are our beaches. We have 

 taken care of the territory in the upper part of Ocean County 

 down to the territory around the Mullica River which has a vast 

 acreage not yet taken care of. 



When, if favorable conditions arise and an enormous brood 

 emerges, it so happens that evening that we have a southwest 

 instead of a southeast breeze, that brood flies over on these 

 beaches and remains for about two weeks. These are the flights 

 about which people complain. People are willing to stand a 

 mosquito now and then, but it is these enormous broods which 

 come over and stay so long that succeed in ruining our reputa- 

 tion. I don't know how many acres we have yet to be drained. 

 We can count the feet that we have cut, but not the feet we are 

 to cut, nor the amount of acres yet to do. 



The problem that is perhaps somewhat peculiar to Ocean 

 County is situated on the lower part of the beach above Barnegat 

 Inlet. There we have somewhat the same condition Dr. Headlee 

 described in Cape May, where ponds and old glades lie back of 

 sand dunes. These dunes are constantly forming and changing 

 and stopping the outlets to the ditches. Various schemes were 

 tried but the one shown on the board has been the most suc- 

 cessful. 



