38 



AKKALS OF HORTICULTURE. 



sufficient knowledge of the horticultural activities of the globe 

 that it shall be able to give advice to all members who may 

 desire to correspond with distant countries upon any given 

 topic, or who may wish to obtain certain plants or information. 

 Societies are eligible to membership, and they may have the 

 privilege of publishing prepared abstracts and lists in their 

 reports for the benefit of their own members. 



National League of Commission Merchants. — 

 On the 6th of January, 1893, some twenty merchants associ- 

 ated with commission houses in various cities, met at the Tre- 

 mont House in Chicago, to organize a national body or league. 

 The proposition was to organize a local league in the large 

 commercial centers of the country, the whole to form a 

 National League, which shall meet annually to promote the 

 interest of shippers and receivers alike, to divest the business 

 of abuses that are said to arise and creep into it, and more 

 especially to avoid and render ineligible a class said to embark 

 in the business as adventurers and irresponsible men. Only 

 houses of known reputation, financially responsible and of 

 trustworthy business methods shall be eligible to membership. 



The organization was formed and it appears to have risen 

 into a sphere of activity and usefulness. Some of the specific 

 objects of the League are declared as follows : "The rapidity 

 and facilities of transportation make all markets accessible, all 

 products obtainable ; the products of a single farm, dairy or 

 garden may be distributed over and consumed in more than 

 half the States in the Union. Every grower, producer, or ship- 

 per may reach the National League through his commission 

 merchant, and have his views for the general welfare carefully 

 considered. Farmers' clubs, fruit and vegetable growers' 

 associations, shippers of butter and other dairy products, and 

 all commercial organizations, will find us ready to unite with 

 them in defeating unjust laws, in collecting and disseminating 

 information, in improving business methods, in resisting dis- 

 criminations, and exactions, and in demanding and enforcing 

 responsibility and integrity. We claim no section ; we are non- 

 partisan and non-sectarian. We guarantee our sympathy and 

 support to every enterprize that may increase the rewards of 

 labor or add to the comfort or happiness of the home." 



Gift Packages. — The organized movement on the part 

 of dealers, in the East, towards the general adoption of gift 

 packages*, or those which are sold with the product rather 

 than returned to the producer, is making decided progress. It 

 is in favor amongst a large proportion of the growers, and the 



* Annals for 1892, 125. 



