236 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



to the greatest number. Such, in brief, is the history and character 

 of the order, whose relationship with the Farmers' Institute I am 

 asked to define: "Education of the Farmer One of the Chief Objects 

 of the Grange." 



The Grange being a farmers' organization, it has always been in- 

 terested in the education of the farmer, and more especially in that 

 which pertains to agriculture. Since the organization of the Grange, 

 more real progress has been made in agricultural development than 

 had been made during a period of two hundred and fifty years pre- 

 ceding its birth. In many localities high schools have been estab- 

 lished, and a better system of common schools has been fostered, 

 while within the Order, a knowledge has been imparted that has 

 gained for the farmer a prominence that was heretofore unknown. 

 Men have been fitted in the Grange for the platform, the press, the 

 Assembly, for Congress and for statesmen. The Grange has become 

 the Farmers' High School, his college, and his university, as it gives 

 strength and culture to those who were not able to secure it else- 

 where. 



NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE ESTABLISHED 



One of the first important acts of legislation secured through the 

 influence of the Grange w^as the establishment of a National Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, to be presided over by a Cabinet oflBcer, known 

 as the Secretary of Agriculture. The first resolution, introduced by 

 M. D. Davies, of Kentucky, was passed at the session of the National 

 Grange held at Chicago, 111., in 1876, and reads as follows: 



"Eesolved, That American agriculturists demand that they shall 

 be recognized as a real factor in this government by the establish- 

 ment of a Bureau of Agriculture, to be presided over by a Cabinet 

 officer, who shall organize the same on a plan to be devised by the 

 wisdom of Congress, which shall embrace, to the fullest, the agricul- 

 tural interests of 20,000,000 of the people, and whose counsel and 

 advice shall have due weight according to the same, on matters af- 

 fecting the agricultural people, and, also, our public affairs gen- 

 erally." 



Similar resolutions were adopted by succeeding sessions of the 

 National Grange, and committees were appointed to see that the 

 desired legislation was enacted. Much opposition to the resolution 

 soon developed in Congress, and the fight was a long and bitter one. 

 The measure was opposed because it was said to be "Legislation for 

 the protection of special interests." Others said "We have here the 

 spectacle of a large class of people, already strong in material re- 

 sources and abundantly able to protect their own interests, clamor- 

 ing for the elevation of this department and for the dispensing of 

 special favors to them. The request is not made by the real agri- 

 culturists of the country, nor by any relatively larger number of 

 men engaged in that business throughout the land." It was called 

 "an illegitimate child of the Government." In reply to this asser- 

 tion. Congressman Hatch said, "If this department is an illegitimate 

 child, then let the Forty-sixth Congress of the United States do the 

 greatest act of its official life and legitimize this child of Agricul- 

 ture. Illegitimate! If it be so, it has done more for the country 

 than any other child born to it since the Declaration of Independ- 



