membership, we think the germ of success must be there or so many- 
would not send kindly replies. 
From these replies it is evident that there are many points which 
are not fully understood and questions that require fuller answers. 
The matter of accepting paid advertising is one of these. One mem- 
ber says: "I would be very glad to have the advertisements continued 
in the Bulletin. I do not see why we need be hampered by them as 
ours is not a commercial paper." And then, in suggesting new de- 
partments she adds, "Where to obtain good, reliable seed, stock, etc. 
Suggestions from members." This exactly brings out the situation. 
When we accept advertising and accept money for it we become, in a 
technical sense, a commercial publication and we must follow the 
ethics of business. We can lay down rules that we will not sell space 
to notoriously unreliable seedsmen, that only a certain amount of 
space will be sold to one firm, but having once accepted payment from 
certain firms we cannot mention the names of other firms and their 
wares in the body of our magazine. Did we do so our advertisers 
could justly accuse us of breaking faith with them and withdraw their 
advertisements. In our opinion we should give lists of reliable firms 
and definitely state the best place to obtain certain new, unusually 
and especially good things, but are we to claim a non-commercial 
spirit and then, because we are amateurs, break the rules? If we 
would do so we could not, since our advertising pages would be an. 
empty waste. We must choose between a frank statement of rival 
claims and the $i,ooo annually more or less, that paid advertising 
would brin^ us. Which is more valuable to our membership, the 
money or the unbiased information that we can give them if we ac- 
cept no money? To answer other questions in this connection, we 
add that advertisements have been accepted only from firms recom- 
mended by member clubs or individual members whose opinion is 
backed by experience, but that even though great care has been ex- 
ercised names have crept in that could not be inscribed upon the 
"Honor List" of reliable, interested dealers suggested by another 
member. 
We must meet many varying tastes. One Club asks for a Poetry 
Department; one member says sternly, "Less poetry." And yet in 
the eighteen Bulletins issued under the present editorship, twenty 
very short poems have been printed, all but a few classic quotations. 
Another Club feels no interest in articles by Miss Jekyll since 
Miss Jekyll's books are available and universally read, but many mem- 
bers feel that the revival of the Bulletin is justified by her promised 
contributions. One member does not find it worth while because it 
does not help California gardeners and a Southern member wants re- 
3 
