The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-06
NTLFORDS SHELTER PEST.
Bugs So Thick This Year They Break the
Gov cat chers on the Locomotives.

MILFORD. Me, Sept. 4.-Whenever a
Maine orator or a Maine poet gets stuck
| for comparison which conveys an idea OF
Astounding plenitude and Of numbers which
are so large that they cannot be stated in
figures. he says "as thick as mosquitoes in
Sunk Haze Meadows, and feels sure people
will understand him without further ex-
PLANTATION There are about ten thousand
acres in Sunk Haze Meadows, every acre
containing more than forty thousand square
feet Of land and every foot capable of yield
ing from FIVE hundred to one thousand
mosquitoes in day.
In foggy days in June the trains runnin 6
between Costigan station and Milford are
lighted up at midday. the mosquitoes being
so thick outside as to arken the sky. The
noise made by the wings OF the insects is
said 10 overpower the roar Of planning
mill on the banks Of the Penobscot twenty
rods away from the railroad track. After
the cars have gone along the rails are often
red with the blood Of mosquitoes crushed
under the wheels
Old men whose skins have become in =
durated by mosquito bites while living in
New Jersoy have gone home with their
buttoned up after spending day and
two nights in Milford
The only excuse offered by the residents
for living here is that when the mosquitoes
die OF old age or perish from autumn frosts
their dead bodies. falling upon the ground
fertilze the soil, so that 10 town in New
England can begin TO compare with Mil
ford in luxurance Of crops Yet in spite
of the fact that running beans will grow
TO the tops Of the tall poles in six weeks and
potatoes will average a half bushel to the
hill, Milford was becoming depopulated
! and the residents were seeking the uplands
10 avoid mosquitoes, until Moses Reed in
vented hi- great mosquito remedy.
This b o. was discovered by accident
| Reed Is wife had sent for some choice flower
seeds and had planted them III pots IL the
window A good number OF plants came
| up and grew well without far treatment,
! BY the time the seedlings were big enough
| 10 transplant to the open ground they were
| b. blossom and emitted punR gent OdOr,
| which was identified as the smell Of field
| pennyrOyal
Mrs Reed rat down TO write letter TO
| the florist demanding an explanation, and
| her usba I'd was cent 10 the door to dump
| the zee linRs into the aitch He was met
| by a swarm OF mosquitoes newly haiched
| the fI-l OF The season II was theI. thgt
| he remembered that of all the mosquito
| rem.dl"s lH.ed by wOoasmen oil Of penny
| ruSal wac The only one that had power to
! drive away the nsacts Reed placed the
| pors in chair by the open door 10 go for
| lis hat and when he returned every mos
| quito had lefr the neghborhOod
| Since then h" has kept pot 81 pennyroyhI
| IN every window and doorway, ana though
| the pests have been more than commonly
| plentiful all through The season, not ii
| murquito hss entered the LDii-s
| FOR the past forlbigh, boys and girls have
| u,..n oui Ia to. dry hol9s gathering ripe
| pennyroyal stalks for the seeds, which
| they have ssved 10 plant early next spring
90 The ssedlings may be W bloom by Tia
time tho niospUitOas yet aloIE-