Benson

The plaintiff corporations have filed with this Court a Bill in Equity, pursuant to Section 8c(15) (B) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, as reenacted and amended by the Agricultural marketing Agreement Act of 1937 [ 7 U.S.C.A. § 601 et seq.], hereinafter refered to as the “Act”. They have petitioned for a review of a ruling by the defendant Secretary of Agriculture, and for a modification of his order.

Section 8c(15) (B) of the Act [7 U.S. C.A. § 608c(15) (B)] vests in the District Courts of the United States, in any district in which a handler subject to the act is an inhabitant, jurisdiction in equity to review rulings made by the Secretary of Agriculture upon timely petitions by handlers subject to the questioned order. Each of the plaintiffs in this action has its principal place of business within the Northern District of California.

The plaintiffs are handlers of almonds grown in California, as that term is used in Marketing Order No. 9 [7 C.F.R. 909.1 et seq.], which order was promulgated *144 in 1950 by the then Secretary of Agriculture of the United States under the authority of the aforementioned basic Act.

The Secretary of Agriculture is empowered to make…