1931 ] 
Mosquito Control in Massachusetts 
39 
the board. Money appropriated by the members of the 
project can then be spent for the benefit of the project 
as a whole, without being restricted by town or city 
boundaries. Adopting this method money was available 
for actual ditching operations early in 1930. 
The island of Nantucket was the first to start operations 
in April. This island, covering approximately fifty square 
miles, is situated twenty miles from the southern coast of 
Cape Cod and about twelve miles from its neighbor, Mar- 
tha’s Vineyard. Its isolated position outside the normal 
flight range of Aedes sollicitans (the prevalent mainland 
mosquito) made it an ideal spot to demonstrate the prac- 
ticability of mosquito control by ditching. The area of 
salt marsh on the island was 838 acres, while fresh water 
swamps included over 1300 acres. The salt marsh area was 
treated first, and over 300,000 feet of ditches, ten inches 
wide and 24 inches deep, were constructed before it was 
considered to be in a non-breeding condition. Then atten- 
tion was directed to the fresh water areas. Here the 
topography of the island did not permit the accomplish- 
ment of mosquito control by the simple means of ditching. 
In some cases culverts and underground drains were con- 
structed and in a few instances it was necessary to resort 
to oiling, but in general, whenever possible, permanent 
control measures were effected. The presence of Mansonia 
perturbans , the larva of which attaches itself to roots 
and stems of aquatic plants, added to the problem, since 
it only can be controlled by completely removing the water, 
a method which oftentimes is impracticable. 
The control measures carried on at Nantucket have re- 
duced mosquitoes and added much to the comfort of the 
residents. In addition land values in some regions have 
increased twofold or more. 
The success of the Nantucket project encouraged the 
Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce to inaugurate a drive to 
raise funds to carry on the control work on a more exten- 
sive basis than that provided for by local appropriations. 
Two hundred thousand dollars were pledged by public sub- 
scription, the money to be spent over a period of three 
