288 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



postmaster reported that " there are now thirty newspapers 

 taken at this office, whilst there was but one taken before the 

 establishment of the Grange in this vicinity." l 



Part of this increased circulation was undoubtedly due to 

 the appearance of a new sort of agricultural papers which strove 

 to serve as organs of the " farmers' movement." These papers, 

 while not entirely neglecting topics of practical agriculture, 

 devoted a large amount of space to such subjects as railway 

 regulation, cooperation, and the new Independent parties. 

 News of the doings of granges and farmers' clubs also held a 

 prominent place in their columns. The Prairie Farmer, of 

 Chicago, one of the oldest and most extensively read of the 

 agricultural papers of the West, quickly adopted this policy, 

 and in January, 1873, a department headed " Patrons of Hus- 

 bandry " made its appearance, to be followed shortly after by 

 a department for the clubs and the State Farmers' Association. 

 The Chicago Tribune, also, though by no means an agricultural 

 paper, reported the doings of the farmers' organizations at length 

 and appeared to be in sympathy with their aims. In August, 

 1873, however, a number of men connected with the Illinois 

 State Farmers' Association established in Chicago a weekly 

 paper under the name of the Industrial Age, and this purported 

 to be the particular organ of the movement. All these papers 

 and a number of others transcended the limits of any one state 

 in their interest and circulation, but there were also a large 

 number of local Granger or industrial papers which sprang into 

 existence at this time throughout the Middle West. Either 

 with or without the endorsement of some branch of the Patrons 

 of Husbandry, they essayed to print news of interest to members 

 of the order and of the farmers' clubs, and generally supported 

 the Independent parties in politics. When the Granger move- 

 ment died down in this region during the later seventies most 



as " The Grange; How Best to Conduct it." Prairie Farmer, xlvi. 35, 43, 51 

 (January 3, February 6, 13, 1875). The amount of correspondence from farmers 

 in the Prairie Farmer and other papers was very much greater in 1874 than in 

 1870. 



1 Aiken, The Grange, 10. 



