770 



THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



it and make it effective from Siskiyou County to San Diego County. 

 This act provides for (1) inspection of property, and if found infested 



(2) service of notice to eradicate, control or destroy the ground squir- 

 rels to the satisfaction of the county horticultural commissioner; 



(3) if notice is unheeded, declaration of ground squirrels to be a public 

 nuisance, and making it mandator upon the county horticultural com- 

 missioner immediately to destroy such nuisance at county expense; 



(4) placing of lien against the property, and collection by the district 

 attorney to satisfy costs, such lien to take precedence over any other 

 lien with the exception of taxes. 



Several of the county horticultural commissioners in whose counties 

 the squirrel infestation was particularly heavy, hence causing a great 

 deal" of damage, interested themselves in control measures long before 

 the law went into effect on July 27, 1917. This was desirable as well 

 as necessary, as they naturally were supposed to know something about 

 the pests they were fighting as well as the most approved methods of 

 combating them. Through the courtesy of the United States Biological 

 Survey, the California representative of the bureau was detailed for 

 this work and with his assistance several county horticultural commis- 

 sioners started active campaigns against ground squirrels shortly after 

 the law became effective. These were originally of educational nature 

 to acquaint landowners with methods of control, preservation of natural 

 enemies and the mixing of poisoned baits. These campaigns in most 

 cases have been followed up by rigid enforcement of the law by these 

 commissioners. 



Generally speaking, the campaigns in the different counties followed 

 the same outline. Previous to the series of meetings to be held, large 

 colored posters announcing the beginning of an active squirrel campaign, 

 plans of the meeting and dates of the meeting places, were displayed 

 all over, the county. At the meetings, the county horticultural commis- 

 sioner explained in detail the intents and workings of the new law, and 

 the federal representative delivered a lecture on the ground squirrels 

 of California, their habits, economic importance, natural enemies, and 

 most recently adopted methods of control. The first of these campaigns 

 was held in San Luis Obispo County. 1 



A great deal of difficulty was encountered in enforcing the law on 

 properties adjacent to government and state land. The Biological 

 Survey assisted greatly with the government land, but no one had juris- 

 diction over state lands; thereupon the State Commissioner of Horti- 

 culture, observing the trend of events, on January 1, 1918, secured a 

 $40,000 emergency appropriation from the State Board of Control, 

 with the approval of Governor Wm. D. Stephens, of the $1,000,000 

 war emergency appropriation made by the state legislature in 1917, to 

 be used at the Governor's discretion. This appropriation to be utilized 

 (1) as a food conservation measure to assist in controlling the ground 

 squirrels, annually destroying $30,000,000 in food products and crops 

 in California; (2) to assist the county horticultural commissioners in 

 systematizing and co-ordinating their work in rodent control; (3) to 

 eradicate ground squirrels on state and school lands in California; 

 (4) to establish a central rodent bureau to be known as the " Rodent 



^ee Monthly Bull. State Comm. Horticulture, Vol. VI, No. 9, Sept. 1917. 



178 



