BUSINESS COOPERATION 269 



The Werner harvester was said to be a good one and appears 

 to have given satisfaction in most cases; some of the machines, 

 however, proved to be defective; others were received from the 

 foundries too late to be used in the harvest; and in nearly every 

 case the state granges involved found at the close of the season 

 that they had lost money by the venture. In 1875 new com- 

 plications arose; the Marsh Harvester Company threatened 

 suits for infringement of patents; and the contracts for manu- 

 facture appear to have been annulled. 1 



During the summer of 1874, when the manufacture of the 

 Werner harvesters was to all appearances a great success, the 

 members of the executive committee of the National Grange, 

 and especially E. R. Shankland, the member from Iowa, con- 

 ceived the design of having practically all machinery used by 

 farmers manufactured under the auspices of the Grange. They 

 went about the country buying up patents for the order on all 

 sorts of implements; cultivators, seeders, hay racks, a combined 

 reaper and mower, and so on; and care was not always taken 

 to have the machines thoroughly tested or to be sure that the 

 patents were valid. Some of these patents were purchased by 

 the National Grange and others by state granges, and a lack of 

 definite understanding between the two as to the exact obliga- 

 tions incurred paved the way for future difficulties. In state 

 after state the order entered eagerly upon the manufacture of 

 these agricultural implements; harvester factories, plow and 

 wagon factories, sewing machine factories, threshing machine 

 factories, and general implement factories were planned in 

 Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ken- 

 tucky, and some of them actually established; but capital was 

 difficult to procure, the state granges were short of funds, a few 

 failures dampened the enthusiasm, and by the close of 1875 

 the idea of the manufacture of agricultural implements by the 

 Grange was practically abandoned. 2 



1 National Grange, Proceedings, viii. 30, 68, 82, 105 (February, 1875); Prairie 

 Farmer, xliv. 411, xlv. 139, 347 (1873-74); Western Rural, xiii. 188 (June 12, 1875); 

 State grange proceedings: Iowa, iv, v (1873, 1874); Kansas, iii (1875); Nebraska, 

 iv (1874). 



2 National Grange, Proceedings, viii. 29-31, ix. 21, 37, 39, x. 38 (1875-76); 



