Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1919-06-26
UP BoBs MALARIA.

To the raveler who passes Mount
Shasta, in northern California;. nothing
seems more improbable than that the
section is malarial. The man from the
f;r south cannot reconcile his concep-
tlen of swamps and bayous as the
breeding places of malaria with the
information that his disease prevails
IN the open mountain valleys of the
SHASTA region, n yet. in 1915, 54.5 per
cent OF the population in a certain Sec
ton of Shasta county suffered from
malaria.
The people of a certain district con-
tlguous to The upper Sacramento river
concluded to irrigate their lands. They
quilt dams n itches and bruught
$1,000 acres of land under intensity. Gull
tvation. There were 1900 persons in
the district and their total property
was valued at 81, 200, 900. They bonded
1t for 81, ZOO, 600, built irrigation works,
n made several blades of grass grow
where one grew before.
But here a fly was found in the ONT
ment. Anopheles mosquitoes in small
number had always been present in
the district. When the land was irri-
gated these became a nuisance and, to
make matters worse, the mosquitoes
AASSSS0 - 4Aolo "a
DR.. H. F. Gray undertook to find put
the cause of malaria to the inhabitants
of the district, of whom 54.5 per cent
had the disease. In the northern half
of he district, the only part irrigated
in 1918. the cost for medicine, physician
n labor lost was $1,000, or $751; 20 per
family. One family only spent $1.S6,
while one spent $75.16. 1t is figured
that the entire district will be irrigated
during 1919, and the total cost is x
pected to be $13,500, or an average OF
$41.50 a family. This seems n heavy
! tax to pay for illness, but it is far from
being the total toll. 1t only covers
such readily ascertainable expenditures
as money paid for patent malaria med
tcines, money paid to doctors for SER
vices and medicines, n days lost from
work on account of malaria, said days
charged at the prevailing rate of pay
in the district. Other and less tangible
costs might have been assembled I'M
der sue heads-six deaths from ma
laria, cost of funerals. 500 each; eight
families went on trips for health during
the worst of the disease. The trips
were made necessary by malaria Esti-
mated total, $500. Nine families moved
away from the district because it was
malarial. Three landseekers refused tc
purchase property in the district be-
cause Of malaria.
There was considerable loss because
in several instances men got sick with
malaria in harvest time and at other
times when some crop spoiled because
of lack of labor. 1t was estimated that
the property in the entire area was de-
preciated in value by malaria about
$25o,000, or between SIS and $40 an acre.
The advice given by Gray to the
farmers is given in the Journal of the
American Medical Association. He adj
vtses %ive-year mosquito campaigns.
The expenditures to be: First year.
22.4o0; second, $4,000: third nd SUBJ
sequent years, $4,000. OF the s22. 400.
at least $4,000 can properly be
charged to repair and upkeep of ditch
es necessary for other reasons Under
his plan malaria should decrease SO
per cent the first year, rs per cent the
second year, 30 psr cent the third, IS
per cent the fourth and 100 per cent
the fifth.