254 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



cotton buyers as early as 1873 to enable Patrons to sell their 

 cotton by contract and in bulk. 1 In Louisiana a member of 

 the order was established as Grange agent at New Orleans and 

 did a business on a commission basis during the year 1875 

 amounting to $744,000.2 In Arkansas and Texas the business 

 ventures were mainly in the hands of local agencies during the 

 early years and the failure of many of these cooled the ardor of 

 the members. The executive committee of the Texas State 

 Grange issued circulars informing Patrons of special offers 

 made by merchants or manufacturers and the Arkansas State 

 Grange established an agency at Little Rock in 1876, but its 

 business was too small to warrant its continuance. 3 



In the eastern states the Grange did not make much headway 

 until after the middle of the decade, when the Rochdale plan 

 of cooperative stores had quite generally superseded the agency 

 plan. Still there were many local agencies in more or less 

 successful operation in these states, and Maine, New Hampshire, 

 and Vermont each had state purchasing agents for a time. The 

 Maine and New Hampshire agents confined themselves to 

 making arrangements with different firms for doing business 

 for Patrons at reduced rates, but the operations of the Vermont 

 agency were somewhat more extensive. The by-laws of the 

 Vermont State Grange made definite provision for a business 

 committee in each subordinate grange and these seem to have 

 operated through the state agent. The purchasing business 

 of the state agency amounted to between seventy and eighty 

 thousand dollars in 1874 and was more than doubled the next 

 year. 4 The executive committees of the state granges of 

 Massachusetts and New York made trade arrangements for 

 Patrons with various firms, and in New York several commission 



1 Rural Carolinian, v. 152 (November, 1873). 



2 Louisiana State Grange, Proceedings, iii (1875); Prairie Farmer, xlv. 411 

 (December 26, 1874), xlvi. 259 (August 14, 1875); Rural Carolinian, v. 512 (Au- 

 gust, 1874). 



3 Arkansas State Grange, Proceedings, v (1877); Texas State Grange, Minutes 

 (October, 1873), Proceedings, i (August, 1874); National Grange, Proceedings, 

 xv. 35, 43 (1881). 



4 State grange proceedings: Maine, i, ii (1874, 1875); New Hampshire, i-iii 

 (1873-76); Vermont, i-iii (1872-75). 



