LEGISLATION. 413 



be paid j^^o rata, and no other or greater amount than said sum of one hundred thou- 

 sand dollars shall ever be paid under the x)rovi8ions of this act : And provided furiher. 

 That if the amount hereby appropriated is not sufficient to i)ay the certiticates in lulJ, 

 the balance shall be paid by the counties respectively, according to the amount due on 

 said certificates as issued by such county. 



Sec. 8. Every male inhabitant of the several townships in the said afflicted counties, 

 being above the age of twenty-one years and under the age of sixty years, excepting 

 paupers, idiots, and lunatics, shall be assessed by the board of supervisors of said 

 townshij) to work one day in each week in said township, during the period hereinbe- 

 fore mentioned for the paying of bounties, for the purpose of catching and destroying 

 grasshoppers and their eggs, for five weeks from the time said grasshoppers shall be- 

 come large enough to be taken ; and the amount of work to be so assessed shall not 

 exceed five days in all. 



Sec. 9. The supervisors aforesaid shall make a list of the names of all persons against 

 wJiom said tax shall have been assessed, and place in a column opposite each name on 

 said list the amount of labor assessed against such person, and shall direct the town 

 clerk to make a certified copy of each list, after which the town clerk shall deliver 

 the several copies to the respective overseers of the highways of said townships. 



Sec. 10. The overseers of highways shall give at least two days' notice to all per- 

 sons assessed to work as aforesaid, living within the limits of their respective districts, 

 of the time and places where and when they are to appear for that purpose, and with 

 -what implements. 



Sec. 11. Every person liable to work, as provided for in this act, may commute for 

 the eame at the rate of one dollar per day, in which case such commutation-money 

 shall be paid to the chairman of the board of supervisors, to be applied and expended 

 by him for the destruction of grasshoppers and their eggs, acd he shall be authorized 

 and required to hire and engage some suitable and efficient person to work in the place 

 of said person so commuting, and to pay him the sum of one dollar per day for his 

 services ; and every person intending to commute for his assessment shall, within five 

 days after he is notified to appear and work as aforesaid, pay the commutation-money 

 for the work required of him by said notice, and the commutation shall not be con- 

 sidered as made until such money is paid. 



Sec. 12 Every person so assessed and notified, who shall willfully neglect or refuse 

 to commute or work as provided by this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and 

 shall, on conviction thereof, be liable to pay a fine of not less than two dollars nor 

 more than ten dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not more than ten days, 

 or both, in the discretion of the court, in a suit to be prosecuted in the name of the 

 State of Minnesota, in the same manner as is provided by law for prosecutions of mis- 

 demeanors. 



Sec. 13. There shall be appropriated, out of any moneys in the treasury of this State 

 rot otherwise appropriated, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act, 

 the sum of one hundred thousand dollars. 



Sec. 14. The board of county commissioners of any county in this State afflicted by 

 grasshoppers shall have the right, if in their judgment they see fit, to employ one or 

 more persons iu each township in said county, with such implements or mechanical 

 contrivances as may prove most efficient to destroy the grasshoppers, from the first 

 day of April to the first day of August in each year, paying such persons either by the 

 day or a specified sum for the amount captured and destroyed. The compensation of 

 such person shall be paid out of the general fund of the county : Provided further, 

 That parties employed and paid hy the county commissioners shall not receive any 

 other or further compensation under the provisions of this act. 



Sec. 15. This act shall take eff'ect and be in force from and after its passage. 



Approved March 1, 1877. 



This law, though doubtless framed with the endeavor to meet peculiar 

 emergencies in Minnesota, always struck us as being much too compli- 

 cated, and, in point of fact, as we have just seen, it was never enforced, 

 and proved a practical failure. 



NEBRASKA. 



An Act to provide for tlio destruction of grasshoppers. 



Whereas the State of Nebraska has, for the past three years, been devastated by 

 the grasshoppers, thereby greatly injuring the agricultnral and commercial interests 

 of the State; and whereas these interests are liable to be seriously damaged in the 

 future by the recurrence of the pests aforesaid : Therefore, 



Be it enacted hy the legislature of the State of Nebraska : 



SECTiOiSr 1. That the supervisors of each road-district in this State shall, at the time 



