60 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



rings of middlemen and shippers, the high rates of interest 

 charged upon money loaned in the country, and, above all, 

 the monopoly of the carrying trade enjoyed by the Central 

 Pacific railroad and its subsidiary lines led in 1871 and 1872 to 

 an agitation among the farmers of California in favor of protec- 

 tive and cooperative organization. The first manifestation of 

 this movement was the establishment of a farmers' club at 

 Sacramento in December, 1871, followed rapidly by others 

 in the vicinity, and in September, 1872, delegates from eleven 

 of these clubs met at Sacramento and organized the California 

 Farmers' Union. This body at once began to make plans for 

 the establishment of extensive business enterprises on a coopera- 

 tive basis, its first efforts being an attempt to secure grain sacks 

 for the farmers at reduced rates; and the failure of this project, 

 due to the inability of the farmers to keep their arrangements 

 secret, exposed the need of a closer and more secret form of 

 organization. An opening was thus made for the Patrons of 

 Husbandry, and W. H. Baxter, who had been appointed general 

 deputy for the order in 1871, appeared before the Farmers' 

 Union convention at San Francisco in April, 1873, and so success- 

 fully set forth the advantages of the order that the work of 

 agricultural organization was formally turned over to the Grange 

 and the Farmers' Union went out of existence. 1 



The officers of the National Grange at once sent N. W. Gar- 

 retson of Iowa as a special deputy to the Pacific coast and the 

 organization of granges went on apace', thirty-five being formed 

 by the fifteenth of July, on which date representatives of these 

 granges met at Napa City and organized the state grange of 

 California. 2 Having started the order on its way in California, 

 Garretson proceeded to Oregon where the antagonism of the 

 farmers of the Columbia River Valley to the monopoly of the 

 Oregon Steam Navigation Company made it easy for him to 

 organize twenty granges in a short time. 3 In both of these 

 states the growth of the order was rapid during the remainder 



1 Carr, Patrons of Husbandry, 75-103. 



2 California State Grange, Proceedings at Organization (1873); Carr, Patrons 

 of Husbandry ', 131-135. 



3 Carr, Patrons of Husbandry, 142. 



