The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-03-03


quito nuisance. It is worthy of note that
these 100000 acres are inhabited BY
more than eighty per cent. Of the entire
population Of the State. With the salt
marsh mosquito nuisance eliminated the
value Of these 100000 acres would
surely increase to the amount Of $500
per acre. average Thus. there would
be an addition to the value Of lands in
the State of $10,oOO,000. With tax
rate of one per cent. this would add TO
the taxes payable within the State $780,
600 every year thereafter
Dividing the whole cost Of doing the
work by the 100000 acres named.
would amount to II cents per acre. Di-
viding the total cost by the population
Of the State the cost would be Is cents
per Individual.
1t has been argued that II should be
the duty of each municipality to drain
its own salt marshes at its own expense.
Newark drained its salt MARSHES for $5,-
000. or only 2 cents per inhabitant The
cost to Jersey City for its share would
be about ~ cents per inhabitant. The
cost to Elizabeth. 10 cents per inhabi-
tant. Linden and Woodbridge. only ten
miles from Newark. $3.50 per inhabitant
Looking now to the upper portion Of
Barnegat Bay. We find the section ex
tending from Point Pleasant to Toms
River will cost, according to DR.. Snaath's
estimate, $21, 500 Assessing this upon
the people Of Bay Head, Mantoloiing.
Chadwicks. Lafallette and Silyertown,
would amount to $40 per inhabitant, or
1000 times as much per inhabitant as
to the City of Newark. Qf there were
habitants.) These municipalities would
refuse to raise $21 800 to do this work,
or even half as much. Clearly there
fore, if left to the owners or to the mu-
inequalities this work would never be
done
Your Committee has referred to the
fact that 100000 acres of the State
may have a mosquito pest arising from
condition that can be remesiiel for
$350.0o0.
What is a mosquito 'pest?y If, in
sitting upon veranda 80 feet long by
8 feet wide. go square yards there were
fifty mosquitoes, the people sitting upon
the veranda would surely declare that
they Were suffering from a pest Of
mosquitoes-that is to say, an average
Of one mosquito for every square yard
AnSacre of land is about 200 feet square
There are 4,s4O square yards in an acre.
Surely, if this was a garden, and there
were 4,S40 mosquitoes there, the workers
in that garden would declare that the
mosquitoes We're pest"
DR.. Smith has proven, and SO have
several other observers, that a single
square foot of standing water can breed
5000 single mosquitoes in single
brood. Thus, we find that for every
square foot of standing water We may
have a pest of mosquitoes on every sin
gle acre. It is the small pools of brack-
ish water in the salt marshes that breed
the mosquitoes most abundantly. A pool
ten feet square contains 100 square fee..
1t would only require 10000 such pools
along our 200 miles of sea shore to sup
ply sufficient mosquitoes to become a
pest throughout 2,G00,0o0 acres, or
more than one-third of the entire area of
the State. This would average one such
pool every fifty feet aloug the marshes
of the shore. 1t is, therefore. because so
great a s.pest" may arise from SO small
a source that we tlnd so great good
may come tothe State through so small
an expenditure as $3.50. 600.
New Jersey is famous all the world
over for two things-its good roads. its
bad mosquitoes. 1t enjoys its reputa-
tion for good roads because the State
extended financial aid in building them.
About fifty per cent. of the cost of the
roads was borne by the State itself the
balance by the municipality and the adj
joining property owners. The whole
people Of the State have been benefited
by these good roads, and the whole peo-
pie of the State will in an equal degree
be benefited by the elimination of the
salt marsh mosquito.
Your Committee would, therefore. rec
ommend the adoption of the following
resolutions:
Whereas. 1t has BEEN ihdisputably es-
tablished by scientific observation that
the great bulk of the mosquitoes which
breed in standing water on salt marshes