In Issue No. 37, Bill Wodraska shared some of his thoughts regarding one of mankind's better ideasbarterand offered up an Interesting suggestion: "I'd like to see a continuing feature on barter and skill-and-labor exchanges," said Bill. "Maybe MOTHER could even swap subscriptions for contributions to the department." "You're on!" we replied ... and announced our still-standing offer Anyone (and that means you!) who sends us a short (200 words or less) account of an actual barter that's good enough to print will receive-as the folks on the following pages havea twelve-month subscription (or extension of same) to THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS.

THE MOTHER EARTH NEWS ®, Inc., P.O. Box 70,Hendersonville, N.C. 28739

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If you keep in mind that you're out to make friends - not get the better of 'em you'll find, as we have, that almost everyone is receptive to a good swap.

We often trade eggs, milk, firewood, and labor ... we even swap chores with the children. As a matter of fact, I began my career ten years ago with a tradea car "bought" me a camera-and then five years later 30 of my pet laying hens "paid" for another.

My photographs, In turn, have proven to be good swaps to businesses -for their advertising or record keeping-and to doctors or dentists who've used them to decorate their office walls. My most recent photographic exchange even netted me a jar of uncut opals. I think I'll trade some to a gem cutter In exchange for cutting the rest. And then I'll swap those for ... who knows!

Not that our family's trades always start with my photographs. My mate Is a commercial fisherman and his fish are considered cash at the local garage (everyone has to eat!), health food store, cheese store, etc. The nicest part-we think-about having an edible commodity Is that when we have surplus to Just give away, we never know when the favor will be returned. We recently received a bushel of tangerines from an acquaintance we gave fish to six months ago!

Rae Dejur S. Padre Island, Tex.

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Tradin' Isn't just for country folks! Right here in the heart of the big city, I've found people with the swapping spirit... and my landlord is one of 'em.

We live on the top floor of a three-story apartment building, and I dreamed of usIng the roof to raise a mini-garden in wooden planter boxes. When I asked my landlord's permission, however, he worried that my project might cause water damage to the roofing. At this, my husband offered to completely retar the roof if our landlord would supply the pitch.

And so it was agreed: In exchange for a fully waterproofed rooftop, we were allowed to grow our mini-garden ... and did those little planters ever produce (we had a harvest of 125 tomatoes alone) I Moreover our tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, carrots, eggplants, and peppers were only a part of the reward for our efforts: In addition, we had the all-too-rare experience of seeing the growth of greenery In the city.