Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/286

282 Presenting the matter to Dr. E. B. Voorhees, the director of the station, he was authorized to ask the state legislature for a sum of money sufficient to make such a study of the problem as might be necessary to enable him to make practical recommendations, suited to conditions as they actually existed in New Jersey. Though at first inclined to treat the matter as a huge joke, the law-making body did pass the necessary act appropriating ten thousand dollars for the purpose declared, and this amount, it was intended, should cover two years of work; the minimum of time considered necessary. As a matter of fact it was spread over three years and the investigation is now completed. The detailed report is in the hands of the governor and will be printed in due course; but it may be interesting to summarize some of the conclusions for general information.

It is positively demonstrated that of the thirty-five species of mosquitoes occurring in New Jersey only a few are ever troublesome, and that not more than half a dozen need be considered from the practical standpoint. It has been further found that in this state the mosquito is not a local problem and that in many cases the pest that makes porches uninhabitable at night was bred miles away.

Beginning at the head of Newark Bay, the coast extending southward is edged with a fringe of salt marsh, broken only for a short stretch along Baritan Bay, and from Long Branch to Point Pleasant; and even here every stream has such an edging. Beginning at Bay Head there is an outer bar or strip of sand varying in width from half a mile to two miles or more, broken at irregular intervals but reaching to Cape May. On this narrow shore strip summer resorts like Seaside Park, Barnegat City, Beach Haven, Atlantic City, Ocean City and many others have developed and there is no better beach in the world for bathing and other aquatic sports. Between this outer fringe and the mainland is an area of low marsh, broken into islands by channels, with bodies of water, some large like Barnegat Bay and Great Bay, the majority small. Broad stretches of such marsh also extend along the large rivers of South Jersey so far as the tide makes the water distinctly brackish. Along the Delaware Bay shore the mainland extends closer to the water's edge and the salt marsh areas are smaller, and they gradually disappear along the banks of the river going north, as the water becomes fresh. Altogether there are many thousands of acres of such marsh and on it, in water ranging from fresh to salt, breed four species of mosquitoes. They breed there and nowhere else in the state; but practically two of these salt marsh forms dominate the country for from twenty to forty miles back. In other words they migrate in immense swarms from the places where they were developed and live for weeks or even months in places where, but for them, mosquitoes would be unknown.