116 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



tional danger, the care of that which will support life is of 

 vital importance. In time of strife, under the old baronial 

 rule, neither party was especially careful to pay for what 

 they wanted. If they found it, they took it, and the poor- 

 husbandman was left with nothing to maintain his family ; 

 hence, when able to do so, he made his house his stronghold. 

 The Patrons of Husbandry could scarcely have found a 

 more appropriate designation for their places of meeting 

 than the word Grange. It is, literally, their stronghold. 

 The means of access may be aptly symbolized by the actual 

 approaches of the Grange, as they existed in England dur 

 ing times of trouble, to-wit, a drawbridge and a ladder. 

 Here the defenders meet the Laborer and the Maid, the 

 Cultivator and the Shepherdess, the Harvester and the 

 Gleaner, the Husbandman and the Matron. 



DEGREES OF THE ORDER SYMBOLIZED. 



The above are the names of the degrees of the subordi 

 nate or local Granges, in which communities of farmers, 

 their wives, and those of their children who are approaching 

 maturity, meet to labor for the general good ; to devise 

 plans for social improvement ; to discuss means for the 

 mutual welfare of the fraternity ; and to assist each other 

 in the every day business of life. When the younger ones 

 shall have arrived at the full age and stature of Husband 

 man and Matron, they will have climbed the first four steps 

 of the ladder. To gain thus much, the candidate must have 

 broken up the stubborn glebe of ignorance, and cultured it 

 with the harrow and roller of good intent, that it may re 

 ceive the seeds of education, which, in due time, shall return 

 the husbandman an hundred-fold of knowledge. The suc 

 cession of these four stages may be represented by the rise 



