The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1879-11-22
The Patron of Husbandry.
w. H. wORTHINGTON, EDITOR.
COLUMBUS, MISS, NOV. %, 1879.
The leading, intelligent men of our Or

The leading, intelligent men of our Or
der, who have labored so earnestly to
make the grand movement that was de-
signed to elevate the farmers of the coun-
tIy successful, have herculean task still
before them. They have no less a work
than to rescue from the thraldom of igno-
rance the great body of farmers, who are
to- day, as they have been in the past, the
''hewers of wood" to other classes, and
whose condition is better than that of the
peasantry of Ireland only because of the
great extent of our country which enables
them to buy land at low prices, and in
great measure to escape the grasping
power of the moneyed classes.
The ignorance which prevails to SO great
an extent among the mass of farmers, es-
pecially young farmers who have had little
or no educational advantages, is simply
appalling. In business and political af
fairs, they are so ignorant that they readily
fall victims to the INSCRIPTIONS cotton
guerillas and merchants in the towns and
cities, who rob and Cypress them with
shameless audacity. The most pitiable
spectacles are daily presented in the mar
ket towns. The ignorant farmers, who are
now bringing in their cotton and purcha-
sing their supplies, uniformed OF the real
value of what they sell and buy, are seized
by gangs of guerilla cotton buyers and
agents of lew merchants who swindle them
in every conceivable way, and turn their
poor victims homeward, with depleted
pockets, to renew the hard labors of an
other year. These farmers are not men,
bers of the Grange; indeed, they know
nothing about it, or have been taught by
their merchant masters that it has long
since died out
Here is field for the true men Of our
Order to labor in. State Oranges should,
if possible, send Lecturers into those dis
tricts inhabited by the poorer classes of
farmers, 20 enlighten them in regard to
the principles and purposes of the Order
and induce them to organize Oranges, that
they may not only inform themselves in
regard to their rights and interests as citi-
zens and of the principles and practice of
business, but to enable them to protect
themselves when they come in contact
with the town sharpers. 1t is among such
farmers that Oranges and cooperative
stores should be established, and it is such
communities that small "new process"
cotton factories would benefit most.
The mass Of farmers should be induced
to read papers that are conducted in their
own interests, instead Of the political Jour
mails that are owned or controlled by mer-
chants, lawyers and politicians. The good
which paper like THE PATRON could &C
complish, if read by the poorer farmers, is
simply incalculable, and to setIt circulated
among these is work to which the more
intelligent members of the Order should
give their earnest attention.
1t is not the farmers far removed from
the towns and cities only that are ignorant
of business affairs and of the principles
purposes and progress of the Grange
There is scarcely neighborhood in the
South that does not contain some who
have no knowledge whatever of what the
Grange was designed to accomplished
W hat it has done, and what it is doine
Very few members of the Order even are
readers of Grange papers. 1t was but the
other day that member of Grange in thi.
county within ten miles of the office O
The PATRON, when the motion was made
to appoint delegate and alternate to the
State Grange, asked when and where the
State Grange would meet
We repeat: there is a great work before
the true men of the Order, who weule
rescue the toiling thousands their brothe
farmers-from the worse than midnigh
darkness in which they are cropping. Tn,
light Of the Grange must be made to shine
upon them, that they may learn wher
they stand, that they may know who ar
their friends, and to be able to NEE
on equal ground those who are bande,
together to rob them of the hard -earne,
proceeds of their toll.
We are glad to see that the noble Pa
irons of Virginia are subscribing liberall
to the Virginia GRANGER, the official jour
nalofthe State Grange. Glendale Grange