266 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



Great as was this success, it was out-distanced by that of the 

 local cooperative stores in the state. By 1882 there were ninety- 

 two of these which held stock in the general association, and by 

 1887 the number increased to about one hundred and fifty. The 

 total capital of these stores at that time was about seven hundred 

 and fifty thousand dollars, and in 1885 their combined sales 

 amounted to nearly two million dollars, from which profits of 

 over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars were divided. In- 

 deed the success of the cooperative movement in Texas was 

 so great that the business interests of the state combined in 

 1885 and secured a change in the laws which prevented the 

 further organization of local associations. Another result of 

 this success was the flourishing condition of the order of Patrons 

 of Husbandry in Texas during the eighties, when it was making 

 little progress in other parts of the South and West. 



In the eastern states, also, the advocacy of Rochdale coopera- 

 tion by the National Grange bore fruit. The Grange in this 

 section had no record of past failures in cooperation to live down, 

 and Grange stores were organized during the later seventies 

 and early eighties in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 

 Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. In 

 1877 a Patrons' Cooperative Corporation was established at 

 Portland, Maine, to do a wholesale business in groceries, grain, 

 provisions, and farm supplies. A large part of the capital was 

 furnished by the state and subordinate granges. This corpora- 

 tion does not appear to have been organized on strictly Roch- 

 dale principles, but it did a large business for a number of years, 

 supplying Grangers and Grange stores with goods at low prices. 

 While this form of cooperation did not sweep everything before 

 it in the East as it did in Texas, still, generally speaking, these 

 Grange stores appear to have been successful in a small way. 1 



Of all the activities undertaken by the National Grange with 

 the view of advancing the pecuniary interests of the members 



1 National Grange, Proceedings, xv. 36, 38, 40-42, xvi. 28, 33 (1881, 1882); 

 E. W. Bemis, " Cooperation in New England," in Johns Hopkins University, 

 Studies, vi. 33-36; Massachusetts State Grange, Quarterly Bulletin, January, 

 1876; State grange proceedings: Maine, vi. 16, 18, 26, 37 (1879); New Hampshire, 

 i-vi (1873-79); Massachusetts, v. 20 (1877). 



