THE GROUND SQUIRRELS OF CALIFORNIA. 



751 



agent or employes, may enter upon the lands so infested for the purpose of 

 destroying, and may destroy, said squirrels or gophers. And the expense thereof 

 shall be a claim against such owner or occupant, and a lien upon said land in 

 favor of said adjoining landowner or possessor giving said notice. And said 

 claim may be enforced in any court of competent jurisdiction, and a judgment 

 obtained therefor against said owner or possessor neglecting to comply with 

 said demand. And said lands of said persons shall be sold in satisfaction of said 

 judgment." 



Allowing an outsider to proceed against the squirrels on the land of 

 another truly was an unheard-of procedure. An appalling condition 

 must have been prevalent. Inasmuch as we hear of little being accom- 

 plished under this ordinance, we believe the Supreme Court decision 

 spelled its doom as well. 



The next period of extensive legislation against ground squirrels 

 follows the discovery of these animals as bubonic plague disseminators. 

 The legal phases of rodent control were handled by the state board of 

 health in co-operation with the United States Public Health Service. 

 It might be well to review the work of the public health service in ground 

 squirrel eradication. 



After the exploitation of Pasteur's Rodent Virus residents of the 

 San Francisco Bay counties were beginning to expect almost anything 

 startling of a scientific nature for destroying ground squirrels. This 

 new scheme was announced in 1896 and publicity was accorded it for 

 several years. Whenever a ground squirrel was found dead, or an 

 area appeared to be cleared of them, due to no particular artificial 

 means, the inference drawn was that the virus had been used. 

 There was more or less association of such scientific modes of procedure 

 with the university at Berkeley, hence when in 1902 a type of disease 

 was noticed to be prevalent among squirrels of Contra Costa and 

 Alameda counties, the residents stated that a professor at the University 

 of California had isolated a germ which was being disseminated in the 

 Berkeley Hills by the students. Until 1905 ranchers continued to 

 write to the university for dope to start a squirrel disease in their 

 localities. The university men continued to deny association with any 

 preparation or knowledge of the disease. Pasteur Rodent Virus was 

 accorded credit for a great deal of the killing but there is not a particle 

 of sound information upon which to base such a credit. 



Ranchers wrote to the agricultural papers telling of the plague, as 

 some began to call it, stating that already it had saved considerable 

 work. The death of the squirrels seemed to be very local, for only 

 occasionally were large areas noted over which squirrels had disap- 

 peared. Part of this time market hunters marked that certain of the 

 squirrels killed had thicker, darker blood and spots in parts of the 

 tissues; also that these squirrels would spoil very much more quickly 

 than those appearing normal. An observation made about this time 

 disclosed several ectoparasites, chief of which were lice and some very 

 large fleas. Even after the use of carbon disulphid became common, 

 those using this substance to destroy squirrels found that when applying 

 the dose fleas jumped from the mouth of the burrow to the clothing 

 of the person so engaged. The squirrels were grossly infested by fleas 

 and lice, for specimens would be found with the skin scraped in many 

 places, due to what was supposed to be excessive scratching; hence the 

 inference that they were so weakened by the presence of the vermin 



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