2T 



bers and the plea was endorsed by a unanimous vote. Ii read as 



r 



follows : ' 



t 



■ 



T(? the Hon. Postmaster General U. S. A., Washington, D. C.\ 



Dear Sir. — Of two four lb. packages of dried plants now before me, marked for 

 transportation, the one to a post-oflice in Oregon, the other to a suburb of this city, 

 .the former will be transported by your department at a heavy loss ; the latter, which 

 "you could transport at a handsome profit, will go by express. 



» Five thousand Botanists throughout the United States are more or less continuously 

 engaged in the forwarding of such parcels, and always choose their mode of transpor- 

 tation in the manner above indicated. I, myself, have probably a ton of such matter 

 to forward during the coming year. The same statement applies to thousands of Or- 

 nithologists, Entomologists, and other Natural History collectors. 



It is clear that your department suffers the annual loss of an appreciable amount oi 

 revenue : 



L 



1st. Ey the excess of expenses over receipts from such packages as it trans- 

 ports ; ' ' ■ 



2d. By the loss of that portion of such packages which it could profitably trans- 

 port but which now go forward by express. 



Upon the side of the people the evils of the present system bear much more heavily. 

 Natural History collectors are, almost without exception, people of very limited means, 

 working in their several departments for the benefit of science, for the most part with- 

 out pecuniary recompense. They must therefore, practice every economy, and are 

 especially worthy of every liberal consideration which can justly be extended io them. 

 At the same time they are, as a class, greatly overworked, and must practice even a 

 more rigid economy in the matter of time, than in the matter of money. Yet under 

 the existing postal laws, they must choose between suffering injustice in one of the two 

 directions above pointed out. In sending parcels by mail they must do one of th 

 things : 



1st, Print their labels at a great expense; 



2d. Send written labels with their specimens and subject the parcel to letter-post- 

 age. 



3d. Make out two sets of labels, one, bearing a number, to go with the specimens, 

 theother^ the authentic label, defaced with a number corresponding to that accom- 

 panying a specimen, to go separately by letter -post. ' ■ 



Any one of these alternatives is so injurious, that, except where great distance is to 

 be covered, senders prefer io forward by express, to the great disadvantage both of 

 themselves and the Postal Department. 



Now the essence of my plea lies in the fact that to a collector an authentic label 

 forms just as truly a part of his specimen as does one of the leaves of his plant or one 

 of the wings of his bird. For this reason I say the present law works real injustice. 



The remedy is such a simple one that it seems to me to rest easily within your 

 hands. 



I, therefore, most respectfully and earnestly pray you to properly recommend and 

 ^rge upon Congress, during its present session to scj modify the existing postal laws 

 as to make it legal to send through the United States mails, together with natural his- 

 tory specimens, and without thereby increasing the rate of postage on the same, of 



