148 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



club -room, where husband and wife, father and mother, brother 

 and sister, may meet, when the labors of the day permit, to 

 improve themselves in that social and intellectual intercourse 

 that has hitherto seemed unavailable to a class who com 

 pose at least two -fifths of the population of the country. 

 If no other problem in human life were solved by the Pa 

 trons of Husbandry, this alone would stamp it indelibly as 

 one of the most harmonizing institutions of either ancient 

 or modern times. 



THE BUSINESS FEATURE. 



While the Patrons seek to inculcate precepts of morality, 

 educate the intellectual, and provide innocent amusement, 

 business is the chief aim of the Order. This includes plans 

 for assisting each other in buying and selling; discussions 

 on the best means for the improvement of tillage ; on drain 

 ing, landscape adornments, and the best methods of making 

 home beautiful ; and educating the members to a general 

 knowledge of business, so that they will not become the 

 prey of sharpers, who have heretofore found our agricultu 

 ral classes only too easy dupes. 



There is one class of swindlers to whom the farmers have 

 especially fallen victims, the class called &quot; scalpers &quot; by 

 railroad men. They sell tickets on their own account to 

 any part of the world, cheating the purchaser when oppor 

 tunity occurs. They are self-constituted agents, who buy 

 up blocks of nursery trees and plants already culled until 

 entirely worthless for practical use. These are sorted, tied 

 into suitable bundles, to correspond to the orders taken from 

 farmers by their agents, carefully labeled, and delivered as 

 first-class stock of the varieties ordered. These tricks have 

 filled the orchards of the unwary with fruits unsuited to 



