CHAPTEK XXX. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM SAUNDERS. 



ONE OF THE FATHERS OF THE PATRONS OF HUS 

 BANDRY. 



William Saunders has been termed the father of the 

 Order of Patrons of Husbandry. He was one of the 

 originators of the ideas upon which the Order is founded. 

 He wrote the preamble to the Constitution of the National 

 Grange, and enunciated the principles upon which the 

 organization is based. Although he never took the field as 

 an organizer of Granges, not being personally calculated for 

 that work, nevertheless, he has allowed no opportunity to 

 pass of asserting the importance of the organization and 

 the good that might be accomplished through its means. 



His standing throughout the entire country as a working 

 horticulturist and landscape gardener, the importance of 

 his experiments, and the elucidation, through his writings, 

 of various subjects connected with practical horticulture, 

 have placed him at the head of his profession. His retiring 

 manners never allowed him to place himself conspicuously 

 before the public, and yet no person can converse with, or 

 listen to, him for five minutes without being aware that his 

 is a master mind, which works only to bring out results. 

 Hence, all who know him, either personally or by reputa 

 tion, have felt that if he recommended the Order of Patrons 



(363) 



