Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-07-18
agricultural department.
THE PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY.

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THE PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY.
Much interest has lately been aroused
throughout the United States upon the sub
ject Of the "Patrons of Husbandry," and
innumerable enquiries made as to "who are
they" or "what is it" It is the purpose of
this article to introduce them Familiarity to
the readers of the Rural Carolinian.
The Order of Patrons is a secret association
Of persons, males over eighteen years of age
and females over sixteen, interested in agri-
cultural pursuits and protection. The organi-
zation consists ofsubordinate or local Oranges,
State Oranges, and national Grange. The
word Grange, derived from the Latin graniune,
SIMPLY means farm with all its outfit, build
ings, lots and fields, and is therefore a more
appropriate and symbolical word than either
club or lodge.
According to the constitution of the Order
there are nine male and four female officers
in each local Grange elected annually. The
presiding officer is styled the Master, and if
not reelected is of course Past master. The
State Grange has likewise nine officers, and
its membership is composed of the Masters
and Past masters of local Oranges, hence there
must be nine local Oranges in State before
there can be State Grange The National
Grange is composed Of the masters and Past
masters of the State Oranges. This beautiful
organization prevents concentration Of power
in the National Grange, located at Washing
ton city, and the entire system constitutes a
grand net work of reciprocal assistances,
that spreads all over the thousands of agricul-
turists throughout the Union who may be-
come Patrons. In this organization the little
State of Rhode Island, represented by her
single Master, has the same potent voice in
the National Council that Texas may have; !;
and South Carolina, if represented with abili-
ty, is equally powerful there with the great
State of New York. So much for the organ
ization. What of its object?
It proposes to further the interests ofagricul-
ture in every possible way. The organization
of Grange in any locality induces commu-
nifty of thought, thereby increasing the socia-
bility Of the neighborhood and improvingi it in
tellectually. If the Order did nothing more
than this, who could measure it's advantages
to the people of this Union, vast majority
of whom are agriculturists? And, through.
out the South, this feature of the Order should
commend itself as sort of quickening spirit
divinely appointed; for we are all interested
in agriculture, and at this moment society
seems to be rapidly segregating, and children
by the thousands are growing up in ignorance.
70 check this disintegration, to Danish ignor-
ance from our doors, to elevate the farmer in
tellectually, and to teach him he has mind
as we'll as muscle, is one of the grand objects
of the Patrons of Husbandry.
But it goes further. 1t proposes to impress
upon the farmer the mournful, but long since
patent truth, that he has heretofore been the
pack-horse for all other parties; that he has
been the dupe, the very scape-goat ofspecula-
tors and middle men of every shape size, color
and description that he has rights which,
from ignorance, he has hever dared maintain !;
that if he has the energy and patience to la.
Dor diligently, from seed time to harvest, he
certainly should have the intelligence to know,
what he never has known-the true, proper
marketable value of his hard-earned products ;
that if in at,ion there is strength, so in the or
ganization ends may be aimed at and effects
produced which, in the future will relieve the
farmer from thatindustrial thraldrom to which
he has been subjected in the past. These, and
many other similar lessons, pratical every
whit, and profitable to the purse as we'll as to
the mind, do the Patrons of Husbandry teach
to those farmers all over the Union who unite
with the Order; and wherefore should any
farmer refuse to do so?
The advantages accruiug from organiza-
ton, need not be discussed in this article; they
are trite to every rejecting mind. Were it
otherwise, we would seldom hear of Boards of
Trade, Chambers of Commerce, Trades Un-
ions and the like. Mercantile men, CONNER
cial men, professional men, and mechanics of
every kind appreciate fully the value to their
respective vocations Of union, concert and
singleness of purpose. But farmers every
where have always acted as though their voca-
tion aimed at nothing, and as if their duty
was to labor patiently, year in and year out,
to produce something that other people set a
price upon. And the most menial laborer, the
most abject slave to such policy as this, has
always been the Southern cotton planter.
His harvest time seldom ever comes; his
moments of recreation are always in the fu-
ture. The work required, the time consumed,
and the expenses incurred to prepare his crop
for sale so surely burthen him with debt, that,
year after year, he goes begger into market,
humbly receiving for his wares just so much
as his masters are disposed to give The Pat.
rons of Husbandry propose in thousand
ways to put stop to this impoverishing pol
icy.
But, say straight jackets, your Order is q Sc
cret organization. To be sure; it is therefore
to be priced; otherwise, it would have no
cohesiveness. Ask any man if his most val
liable thoughts are not kept to himself? Why
do all deliberative bodies hold their "execu-
tive sessions" (their most important meetings)
in secret? Ask the merchant why his "cost
mark" is an enigma? Wherefore we are
taught, that our right hands should not know
about the doings of our left? To my mind
this objection is futile.
But the Southern Bourbon accuses the Or
der of being an "ism" from Yankee land. So
be it. fit be good and worthy accept it, even
though it come from "Nazareth." Let him
who opposes the Order upon the grounds of its
being of Yankee origin, ask himself the ques-
tions, whence comes the hat wear? Whence
the very shirt that covers my nakedness? !?
Whence the hoe that chops my cotton
Whence the greater portion Of my daily sub
sistence? His answers will relieve me from
further argument on this point.
But you admit women, says another !do
you advocate woman's rights? Fortunately
the constitution precludes the introduction Of
any political or religious discussion in the work
of the Order, but it requires certain proper
tion of females in every Grange. This wise
provision will enhance its social worth. The
presence of woman will give to the Order
virtue, dignity and character. Were farmers