ORGANIZATION 6 1 



of the year, in view of the comparative sparseness of the popu- 

 lation; and by October 18, 1873, California had ninety-one, 

 and Oregon, thirty-seven granges, which was at the rate of 

 159 and 213 per hundred thousand of agricultural population, 

 respectively. Two other states of the Western division, Colorado 

 and Washington, were added to the roll of the order during this 

 period, the former having two and the latter five granges on the 

 eighteenth of October. 



In the North Atlantic division the order made little progress 

 in 1873, there being but ninety-two granges in the whole division 

 on October 18, half of which were in the two states of Vermont 

 and Pennsylvania. First granges were organized in New Hamp- 

 shire and Massachusetts, but Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode 

 Island remained untouched by the movement. 



There are a number of things which help to explain the com- 

 paratively slow growth of the Patrons of Husbandry in the 

 North Atlantic division during this and subsequent years; but 

 perhaps the most important of these was the fact that the eastern 

 farmers were, in the nature of things, largely out of sympathy 

 with what at that time appeared to be the principal aim of 

 the order in the North Central states the reduction in the 

 cost of transportation of farm products from the West to the 

 markets of the Atlantic seaboard. The way in which eastern 

 farmers were suffering from competition with the virgin soil of 

 the West has been pointed out in the preceding chapter, and it 

 will readily be seen that any reduction in transportation charges 

 would only heighten this competition and make it still more 

 difficult for the eastern farmers to make a living. So it was not 

 until some years later, when the increase of dairy-farming and 

 market-gardening relieved the eastern farmers to a considerable 

 extent from the pressure of western competition, and when the 

 order began once more to place the leading emphasis on its 

 social and educational features, that the Patrons of Husbandry 

 obtained any considerable sway in the states of the North 

 Atlantic division. 



Another matter which undoubtedly served to retard the growth 

 of the order in the East, and to some extent throughout the 



