THE FERN BULLETIN 



of the printing alone. There must also be taken into 

 consideration the cost of cuts, stationery, mailing, 

 wrapping, postage, etc., etc. This will increase the 

 cost at least a third. If the revenues of the Society 

 are used for publication, additional money must be 

 raised to defray the cost of running the Society and 

 publishing the annual Report. At present, after the 

 Society's copies of Fetn Bulletin are paid for, there is 

 left sixty-five dollars or more for the use of the So- 

 ciety. Which do you prefer, an "official organ" smaller 

 than this magazine and requiring all your revenues, or 

 the present magazine plus a good round sum for other 

 things ? It should be remembered that under the pres- 

 ent arrangement, the Society gets the magazine below 

 cost, although the publisher is in no way bound to 

 make this reduction. Can the Society by publishing 

 its own magazine arrange for anything half as ad- 

 vantageous? So far as we can ascertain no Society 

 publishing its own magazine has dues as low as ours, 

 The members who belong to these other Societies have 

 only to ask themselves how the annual dues compare 

 to understand that the official organ is responsible for 

 much of the difference. So well is this known that 

 members of the Fern Society have been asked to 

 pledge their dues for two or more years in advance to 

 make the first year's issues possible. In this case, 

 where is the money for following years to come from? 



Before the Society can establish such an organ it 

 will be necessary to alter the Constitution to provide 

 for its editorial management. The editor will have 

 to be either elected or appointed and the frequent 

 changes that must necessarily occur will not 

 conduce to the best interests of the Society. 



