POSTAGE ON SEEDS, CUTTINGS, ETC. 29 



The Annual Report of the Library Committee was read by the 

 Chairman, Edward S. Rand, Jr. Accepted and referred to the 

 Committee on Publication. 



The Annual Report of the Garden Committee was read by John 

 G. Barker. Accepted and referred to the Committee on Publica- 

 tion. 



J. Warren Merrill introduced the following petition : 

 To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives in Congress 

 assemhled : 



Your petitioners respectfully represent that there is great need 

 of a convenient, reliable, rapid, regular, and cheap mode of send- 

 ing seeds, cuttings, bulbs, grafts and small plants, samples of 

 merchandise, books, and many other small articles, and that the 

 Post Office Department alone can supply this need. We therefore 

 respectfully petition your honorable bodies to reduce the present 

 rate of charge on such matter one-half, and to authorize the affix- 

 ing of names, numbers, or letters to all such articles so sent as 

 will enable the sender to designate them to the receiver. 



And we also ask an enactment that will forbid the opening of 

 any such package until it reaches its destination, when, if it proves 

 to contain unlawful matter it shall be subjected to letter postage. 



Voted, That a committee of five, of which the President shall 

 be chairman, be appointed with full powers in behalf of this So- 

 ciety to petition Congress for the enactment of a law for the better 

 and cheaper transmission of third-class mail matter. 



Marshall P. Wilder, J. Warren Merrill, Robert Manning, and 

 Edward S. Rand, Jr., were appointed, and the above petition was 

 signed by the Committee in behalf of the Society, and also by a 

 large number of the members. 



Voted, That the Committee of Arrangements be requested to 

 make a report of their doings, beginning with the year 1876. 



William C. Strong, Chairman of the Committee on Discussion, 

 announced that a Prize Essay by Dr. D. D. Slade, on Landscape 

 Gardening, would be read next Saturday. 



Adjourned to December 18. 



