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Passaic County has an area of 196 square miles; its length is 

 about thirty miles and width thirteen miles. It has a popula- 

 tion of 250i,oooi. Eleven per cent, of the entire area, or less than 

 one-ninth, has eighty-three per cent, of the population, and con- 

 tains ninety per cent, of the total ratables. The population in 

 this area is 11,000 people to the square mile, while in the other 

 eighty-nine per cent, of the area there are only 170 people to 

 the square mile. 



Where mosquitoes do not present a county-wide problem, and 

 an appropriation is made insufficient to permit county-wide 

 work, the problem then resolves itself into the question, "How 

 can this limited appropriation be expended within a given area 

 to' give protection from mosquitoes to the greatest number of 

 people ?" 



With an appropriation of $15,000 in 1916, the Passaic County 

 Mosquito Extermination Commission found it impossible to at- 

 tempt county-wide mosquito control work. It then decided that 

 the area of twenty square miles, which included the city of 

 Paterson, the city of Passaic and the township of Acquackanonk, 

 these having a combined population of 220,000 was the territory 

 most likely to show the practicability of local mosquito control. 



A survey and inspection of this area showed that in the out- 

 lying districts of the city of Paterson, the city of Passaic and 

 township of Acquackanonk, there were 188 pools, swamps and 

 ponds that would require constant attention during the summer 

 to prevent or control mosquito breeding. Briefly, the problem 

 was to investigate conditions and to find the best method of 

 extermination within the area to be protected. Naturally the 

 first step in preveniton is to discover the location. The basis of 

 any campaign against mosquito breeding conditions must be an 

 accurate knowledge of its prevalence. Among these 188 pools 

 and swamps in the outlying districts of the above territory, fully 

 fifty per cent, were artificially created through some public work, 

 such as the grading of streets, and sewer construction, also the 

 dumping of city waste, and new places are being formed con- 

 tinually. 



