For more th an a year there has been no Bulletin. Through the 
early months of the war it struggled on, trying to be interesting, hop- 
ing to justify itself, but always growing feebler, less self-confident, 
until in sheer mortification, it crouched in the corner of a book shelf 
and hid itself until gardening days should come again. Around it 
ebbed and flowed a mass of war-garden pamphlets, war-time canning 
recipes, conservation literature; with all these harrowing subjects it 
had inadequately dealt. Finally it dug itself in, canned itself, con- 
e rved paper, time, energy, by ceasing to be. 
With the end of the war it stirred, ready when invited, to appear 
again. It has been invited, tentatively, perhaps, so for the next year 
it will make a special effort to prove whether its war-time inadequacy 
was constitutional or merely shock. If it is assertive, set it down to 
bravado; if dull, to caution; if confused, to a desire to please garden- 
ers who know, ignoramuses who garden; optimists who revel in the 
failures of others, pessimists who question their successes; sentimen- 
talists who want undiluted facts, and common-sense diggers who enjoy 
flights of fancy couched in flowery terms. 
On August 2 1 St was mailed to all Garden Club members a Bul- 
letin plan and questionnaire. Some of these were long in reaching 
their destination, but before today, October 15th, about 200 individ- 
ual members have replied and nine clubs have answered as a whole. 
This, we are told, is an unusually large percentage so we dare to hope 
that the Club is really interested in a revival of its organ. 
These answers are illuminating and sometimes disconcerting. 
Perhaps 25 people reply that they read the Bulletin but do not find 
it interesting, or only occasionally so, but what is one to say when a 
lady states that she does not read the Bulletin, that she does not 
find it interesting, that she doubts its being worth the cost, and that 
busy people must have a magazine on a large scale because they haven't 
time to read a small one and that as it has been issued it is distinctly 
not worth while? Perhaps it isn't, but how is one who does not read 
it to know? Another doesn't read it very often or find it very inter- 
esting and is sure that a magazine which is not worth twenty-five 
cents to individual members can hardly be worth $.^,000 to the Club, 
at a time when paper and labor are both too precious to waste. 
We concede that these criticisms are just, but on the other hand 
150 or more members have replied that they always read the Bulle- 
tin and find it very interesting, many even going so far as to say that 
it is essential to the life of the Club and that it is too good a magazine 
to be distributed free. Three faithful souls urge that no change what- 
soever be made, since our little magazine is perfect. This we grate- 
fully deny, but, making due allowance for the magnanimity of our 
