Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-08-30
THE PATRONS OF HusBA NuRY.

THE PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY
The idea of the Order of the "Patrons
of Husbandry" was originally borrowed
from an association which, for many
years, had maintained feeble existence
in community of Scotch farmers in
North Carolina. The objects of this
Scotch society, SO far as can be ascer-
tanned, appear to have been the pnr-
chase Of all needed supplies from first
hands and at wholesale rates, and the
cultivation of more intimate social rela-
tions among its members; that is, it
was a secret cooperative, industrial,
and social association among those
already allied by mutual work and inter
est and sympathy. 1t was meager in
numbers, and narrow in influence, to a
degree that the fact of it's existence was
unknown beyond the limits of the little
community affected by its institutions
Nor was it until the spring of 1868 that
the idea of these Scotch farmers began
q to be mooted abroad, and known to the
sg1coI1c vi hHo Ncot. lining tue pre-
.yious winter Mr.. O. H. Kelly of Itasca,
Mimi, and dozen other leading agri-
culturists of the West, happening to-
gether at Washington, held frequent
interviews in relation to the interests of
the farming population of the great
West. 1t was at this time and place
that the great farmers movement first
suggested itself to their minds, upon
learning of the character and operation
of the little Scotch society in North
Carolina, whence sprung the agricultu-
8 raj revolution in it's present shape. At
once the idea was seized upon, and
adapted to meet the purposes of ma
tional organization. Early i'll the year
1868, "Grange" was organized at
Itasca, Mimi, under the supervision of
Mr.. Kelly. This was the first Grange
organization in the United States, ex-
cept the organic germ in North Caro-
lima. Another Grange was speedily or
ganized at Newton, Jasper county,
Iowa; and in a short time third en-
tered upon feeble existence at Wau-
s. kon, Allamakee county, Iowa. Here
and there in various parts of the West
and Northwest other Oranges were or
ganized from time to time; but the
movement had not yet taken firm root,
and its existence was still precarious.
AT the end of 1871 the order had been
introduced into Minnesota, Iowa, Wis
consin and Illinois; but up to the close
of the year 1871, its entire number in
the four States named is estimated at
not over seventy-ive thousand.
Quickened by new impulse, and
strengthened by powerful vitality, its
progress within the past twelve months,
beginning with the year 1872, has been
not less than wonderful. From its
weak army of seventy-fve thousand, it
is claimed that, in the same four States,
its membership has swelled to the more
formidable number of four hundred and
fifty thousand; and is constantly in
creasing with the same rapid vigor. At
duced into large proportion of the re.
manning States, and some of the Terri
tories, and is extending not only to the
North and West, but also to the East
and South. 1t is this prodigious growth,
rapid advance, and general diffusion
throughout the country that gives the
deepest significance to the movement
In Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and
particularly in Georgia, the agricultural
classes are organizing oranges with the
same avidity which characterizes the
movement in the Northwest. Altogether
it is found in active operation at the
present time in twenty States, two or
three Territories, and in the Canadas.-
Mrs. Pauline ,Spatn.