52 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



a grange in Boston with the assistance of George Noyes of the 

 Massachusetts Ploughman, who had shown himself favorable 

 to the order. 1 



Thus the year 1871 saw the introduction of the order into seven 

 additional states: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, 

 Mississippi, Vermont, Kentucky, and New Jersey, making a 

 total of sixteen in which the order was at work; also the organi- 

 zation of two state granges, in Iowa and Wisconsin, although 

 the latter had to be reorganized in the following year. 



RAPID GROWTH OF THE GRANGE, 1872-73 



Before taking up the work of organization of the year 1872, 

 it will be well to notice some features which were being intro- 

 duced into the order that tended to increase its popularity and 

 led to its rapid spread during the next three years. Although 

 the original idea of the founders appears to have been that the 

 benefits of the order to its members would be primarily social 

 and intellectual, it very soon became apparent that the desire 

 for financial advantages would prove a far greater incentive 

 to induce the farmers to join. This early led to two forms of 

 activity which left an indelible stamp upon the order, and gave 

 it, in large part, its importance in the history of the period: 

 first, the efforts to secure cheaper transportation; and, secondly, 

 the introduction of all sorts of schemes for cooperation in the 

 purchase of supplies, the marketing of farm products, insurance, 

 and even in the manufacture of agricultural implements. 



The desire for cheaper transportation assumed the form of a 

 somewhat vague antagonism to railroad corporations and agi- 

 tation for government regulation of freight and passenger rates. 

 This matter will be taken up more fully in connection with the 

 Granger railroad legislation, and is merely mentioned here in 

 order to bring out the fact that this agitation came into the 

 order prior to its remarkable expansion in 1873-74 and was in 

 fact one of the causes of that expansion. The attempt in 1870 

 of Secretary Kelley and Editor Corbett of the Prairie Farmer 



1 Kelley, Patrons of Husbandry, 313, 325-327, 337, 341, 350, 355. 



