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THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



Posters announcing a series of meetings were distributed throughout the county, 

 as much publicity as possible through the press of the county was given the move- 

 ment, and on the date and hour set for the first meeting Mr. Jacobsen and the 

 commissioner were on hand to conduct it. On the following page is a copy of this 

 poster.* 



In a brief talk the commissioner explained at each meeting how the recently 

 enacted County Horticultural Commissioners Act would affect the ranchers ; what 

 powers and duties in connection with squirrel control had been delegated to these 

 officials, and how the law would be administered with reference to landowners, 

 absentee landowners, government land, railroads, state highways, county roads, and 

 vacant land. It was mentioned that subsequent to July 27 it would be his duty to 

 eradicate ground squirrels whenever the landowner was unwilling or refused to do 

 so, and that such work would be at the landowner's expense, through a lien on his 

 property, which, according to the law, would take precedence over and be paramount 

 to all other liens on the property, except the lien of taxes. 



Fig. 121. Demonstrating the mixing of poisoned 

 grain for use in killing ground squirrels. 



After reading the pertinent parts of section 2322a, Mr. Jacobsen was introduced. 

 He explained the Biological Survey's part in this work, and told of their having 

 charge of squirrel eradication on all government land, and the government's interest 

 in it as a conservation measure during these war times. He entered into a detailed 

 discussion of the Beechey ground squirrel, its life history, feeding and breeding 

 habits, and its economic importance, stating that it causes more than $10,000,000 

 damage in the United States each year. In this connection Mr. Jacobsen cited 

 several instances : one on Union Island in the San Joaquin River, an island con- 

 sisting of some 1S,000 acres, where the ranchers themselves estimate a yearly damage 

 of $65,000 caused by ground squirrels ; of a rancher near San Miguel, who for the 

 first five or six swaths around his grainfield obtained a yield of 15 sacks to the 

 acre, while in the middle of the field, where the squirrels had not damaged the 

 grain the yield reached 30 sacks; of a young orchard in the northern part of the 

 county where 200 out of 300 young almond trees had been completely destroyed. 

 In discussing control measures, Mr. Jacobsen stated that the survey had experi- 

 mented with 153 different kinds of poison, only to return to strychnine as the most 

 effective for killing squirrels. After years of experience in the national forests and 



•Similar posters have been used by the commissioners in other counties. — Editor. 



