I50 



cleaning can be so distributed over a period of years that it does 

 not become a burden in any one year. The cost of cleaning is, 

 however, still too high and could be materially reduced by the 

 adopting of improved machines or tools. In the aggregate, most 

 all work of this kind is large, but to most of the Commissions 

 or Associations affected it is not of sufficient size to justify them 

 in giving up the time or spending the money necessary to ex- 

 periment with and perfect such a machine. The good of the 

 work demands that some of such steps be taken, and if the 

 State does not enter the field it looks as if private funds must 

 again be applied to the solution, and we will once more have 

 the contractor in this work. But in maintenance, as in initial 

 work, if we are to keep our present system of organization, 

 contracts must be written, calling for specific work to be done 

 and not areas to be controlled. 



Before concluding, some comment should be made of contract 

 work on the upland. We find some examples here of contracts 

 on the unit area system, and as we note their operations we see 

 that they have proved even more unsatisfactory than such con- 

 tracts on the salt marsh. For one thing, they are harder to 

 draw in a satisfactory manner. There are too many equivocal 

 phrases; too much disagreement as to intent of terms. For 

 instance, is a pool which dries up in the early summer a mosquito 

 breeding place, and must it be filled to bring about its perma- 

 nent elimination, or does oiling it until it dries up fulfill the 

 provision "to eliminate all mosquitO' breeding places" ? On the 

 salt marsh the breedng is necessarily confined to the pools, de- 

 pressions or ditches on a concentrated area. On the upland it is 

 widely scattered, and may be found in anything from a broken 

 teacup to a polluted river. So the chances of successfully com- 

 plying with such a contract are so very slight that it is not 

 under ordinary circumstances considered practical. One form 

 of contracting on the upland which has been used to advantage, 

 however, is that by which the Commissiont or Association takes 

 the contract to do and perform a certain amount of work for 

 the private property owner or municipality. Using their men 

 and tools and experienced supervision, the association is in a 



