138 ANNALS OF STATE GRANGE OF CALIFORNIA. 



liouseliolcl of our brotherhood, we welcome you cordially, after your 

 additional labor of love for two months by which you have brought 

 into existence another State Grange out of our lamentable chaos of 

 farmers, which, strange to say, has existed from Adam s day to this. 

 And cordially do we welcome you, my brother, who as the Worthy 

 Master of the new State Grange, represent among us, our monopoly- 

 ridden brothers of Oregon and Washington. We rejoice to have you 

 both with us, that you may share our happiness and our work. 



On the 15th of July, three months ago, the State Grange of Cali 

 fornia was organized with delegates from twenty-eight Subordinate 

 Granges. To-day we meet for fraternal greeting and earnest work, 

 as the representatives of one hundred and four Granges throughout 

 the State of California, while our visiting brother represents sixty- 

 five Granges for Oregon and Washington. Rapid as may seem the 

 growth of our Order upon the Pacific Coast, especially when we re 

 member that the past three months are among the busiest of the 

 year, it has been slow in comparison with its progress throughout 

 the United States. Although our National Grange was first organ 

 ized December 4, 1867, when it convened in Washington City, Janu 

 ary 7, 1873, for its sixth annual session, there were, as officially 

 announced, but one thousand three hundred and fifty-nine Subor 

 dinate Granges in the United States, and three in Canada. By our 

 latest official reports, there are now seven thousand three hundred 

 in the United States, and eight in Canada. This shows an increase 

 of some six thousand Granges in nine months time. Nearly half of 

 these, or some two thousand eight hundred, have been added in the 



twenty- 

 nine Granges were organized in the various States and Territories, 

 and fifty-one in one day. In January last, but ten State Granges 

 had been organized, although Subordinate Granges existed in 

 twenty-two States. To-day there are twenty State Granges, and 

 the Order is found in thirty-one States and three Territories. Nor 

 is it confined to America alone. The farmers of Great Britain have 

 written to our American Granges to know the principles of our or 

 ganization. They tell us that they too are forming such associa 

 tions, and wish to make their work conform with ours. Our Ritual 

 is being translated into German, that the farmers of Germany may 

 enjoy the benefits which our Order proposes to secure for its mem 

 bers. So broad then are our principles of unity, harmony and 

 brotherhood, so well do they meet a common want of the human 

 race for social, mental and moral advancement, for improvements in 

 agriculture and in our business transactions, that our noble institu 

 tion is not only national, but is fast becoming international and cos 

 mopolitan in its character. 



Should any still doubt the excellence of our Order to meet the 

 farmers wants, or dread its secrecy, or fear that it is political, or 

 may income way interfere with their personal independence, or if 

 any of its other features appear objectionable, when superficially ex 

 amined, is not this grand rallying of the tillers of the soil under the 

 banner of the Patrons of Husbandry, a sufficient answer to all such 



