748 



THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



trolling squirrels on vacant land; (14) The squirrel master had all 

 the books of his business to keep and (15) served at the discretion of 

 and compensation set by the Board of Supervisors. 



We are gradually coming to the place where this work must be 

 entrusted to competent men who are or should become specialists in 

 squirrel control. The impelling idea behind such a movement was, of 

 course, the vesting of power in a competent man who should be an 

 officer of the law much as a sheriff, and in whom a community could 

 have absolute faith. The final recognition of such a need was given 

 by the legislature of 1875-76 when, under an act passed March 7, 

 1876, boards of supervisors were empowered to create squirrel inspec- 

 tion districts over which districts a district inspector should be appointed 

 at $3.00 per day. Recommendations of landowners or occupants of 

 land in a squirrel inspection district were to be considered in the appoint- 

 ment of the inspector. The law gives the first Monday in October as 

 the time when all should start work on their lands, and this work 

 should be diligently prosecuted until all squirrels were, destroyed. If 

 active warfare was not instituted against the squirrel within three 

 weeks the inspector could serve notice of his intention to proceed with 

 the eradication in office of County Recorder. The occupant of the 

 land would receive word that such notice of intention had been filed 

 and could pay all bills accrued directly to the inspector to save the 

 10 per cent which would be added, if the expenses were filed with the 

 Recorder. If the bills should be filed with the aforementioned county 

 officer and no payment made within 90 days, said bills were turned 

 over to the District Attorney for foreclosing lien proceedings. 



The district inspector could hire men at the rate of $2.00 per day to 

 clean up the areas where negligent owners refused to do the job. This 

 hiring of men was evidently confined to the months covering the period 

 from October to April, during the rainy season, so to speak. 



The law provided for the levying of a tax to create a squirrel nuisance 

 abatement fund from which all expenditures were to be paid and which 

 fund was reimbursed by the collection of the liens. Owners were privi- 

 leged to clean up their lands if the occupant refused, but he must be 

 responsible for any unnecessary damage to premises or crops. One 

 advantage was that all acts in conflict with this one were summarily 

 repealed. 



The moral effect of laws was without question of exceptional benefit 

 to the counties wherein they were applicable, but we hear of no par- 

 ticular successes resulting from their having been enacted. Inefficient 

 and undependable inspectors soon caused more or less diffidence and 

 distrust on the part of the ranchers. 



Land colonies had been promoted and exploited for some little time 

 with the natural consequence that many new and inexperienced people 

 were becoming ranchers. The breaking of soil for the first time dis- 

 turbed squirrels to a limited extent, but it was not long before their 

 inclinations in favor of a new diet brought them to the fore as highly 

 destructive invaders. As the colony idea spread local need became 

 greater for suitable authority to deal with the squirrel nuisance, and 

 when the twenty-fifth session of the legislature prepared and passed 



156 



