[ Act No. 2121, February 01, 1912 ]

AN ACT AMENDING ACT NUMBERED EIGHT HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN BY CHANGING THE METHOD OF APPOINTMENT OF LOCUST BOARDS AND BY DEFINING THE RELATION OF THE BUREAU OF AGRICULTURE TO THE LOCUST BOARDS, AND APPROPRIATING A SUM OF MONEY FOR THE PURPOSES OF SAID ACT, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Legislature, that:SECTION 1. Section one of Act Numbered Eight hundred and seventeen is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SECTION 1. Under the presidency of the provincial governor a board is hereby authorized m each province for the extermination locust boards. of locusts, to be known as the locust board, such board to be made up of four members to be appointed by the Director of Agriculture, on the recommendation of the provincial board, and of the members of the provincial board. Members of the locust board shall serve without compensation except actual and necessary traveling expenses. The provincial treasurer shall act as disbursing officer of the board. It shall be the duty of the locust board to enforce the provisions of this Act, relating to the extermination of locusts and the rules and regulations prescribed by it and approved by the Director of Agriculture."

SEC. 2. Section two of Act Numbered Eight hundred and seventeen is hereby amended to read as follows: "

SEC. 2. In every province in which a plague of locusts is inhabitants liable threatened or exists every able-bodied inhabitant, subject to such to service regulations and limitations as the locust board may adopt, is hereby declared to be liable to service in the destruction of the locusts. The board shall adopt regulations subject to the approval of the Director of Agriculture, and shall perform its labors, either directly or through the municipal officers of the various municipalities who are hereby, in respect to the scope of this Act, made subordinates of the board hereby constituted. The regulations of the board may require that the inhabitants shall work en masse or, in such force and in such manner as may be deemed by the board most efficacious to the end in view, or the board may require that each inhabitant subject to this Act shall collect a given quantity of locusts."

SEC. 3. Section four of Act Numbered Eight hundred and seventeen is hereby amended to read as follows:

"Sec. 4. The locust boards, when they consider it necessary to incur expenses for the destruction of the pest, shall apply to the Director  of  Agriculture  for  an  allotment  of  money, giving an estimate of the cost of such work. "The Director of Agriculture is hereby authorized to allot the necessary amount from the appropriation herein made or from any unexpended balance of the appropriations for his Bureau, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Public Instruction. "The money so allotted shall be expended by the board under rules prescribed by the Director of Agriculture. "The Director of Agriculture is also authorized to expend from the funds herein appropriated an amount not to exceed nine thousand pesos a year for two years for the salaries of two entomologists who shall, under his direction, devote their services to the gathering and dissemination of information regarding locusts, and in  cooperating with the locust boards in their work.   Such entomologists shall be provided with laboratory facilities at the Bureau of Science without cost to the Bureau of Agriculture."

SEC. 4. There is hereby appropriated, out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of fifty thousand pesos annually to be used in carrying out the purposes of this Act: Provided, however, That the unexpended balance of appropriation at the end of any year shall revert to the Insular Treasury. Repeal.SEC. 5. Section seven of Act Numbered.  Eight  hundred  and seventeen is hereby repealed.SEC. 6. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the same shall take effect on its passage, in accordance with section one of Act Numbered Nineteen hundred and forty-five of the Philippine Legislature. Enacted, February 1, 1912.

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