34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The Chair. Grood Fellowship of the Grange, by C. M. 

 Gardner, lecturer Westfield Grange. 



Mr. Gardner. After the triple welcome that has been 

 given you, it is needless for me to say that you are welcome 

 to Westfield. You have heard from our chief officer, who 

 has offered you greeting ; the president of the Board of Trade 

 has offered you the same word of greeting in behalf of the 

 mercantile interests of Westfield ; while from Blandford has 

 come to you the assurance that this welcome is not only from 

 Westfield, but from all western Massachusetts. And so it 

 remains for me as a deep privilege to bring to you the good 

 fellowship of the grange. I speak to many who are members 

 of the grange or the order of Patrons of Husbandry, and to 

 some who are not members, but who ought to be. An 

 organization like ours is worthy the support of every man 

 and every woman who believes in the true things of life. 

 Westfield is very much a grange centre. It has No. 20, 

 with two hundred members, representing as good people as 

 there are in Westfield. But I speak to you for a large circle 

 of granges that surround us on every hand, — Southampton, 

 West Springfield, Huntington, Montgomery and others, for 

 which Westfield is the centre. What is the reason the grange 

 has grown? Because of that for which it stands and for 

 which its energies are devoted, — for a broader education of 

 its members, for a better standard of public life, for a better 

 and a purer home life. In our grange the literature used is 

 one of the most important features. Topics of large im- 

 portance are treated there, matters of history of the highest 

 interest to our members. It is an important factor for a 

 higher standard of public life. The grange stands, and always 

 will, I l^elieve, for the greatest good to the greatest number. 

 But it is not in this that the gfran^e is strono-est. It is 

 strongest in that it makes for a better and a purer home life. 

 In what other place will you find the father and the mother, 

 the sons and the daughters, all combinins^ to transact business 

 of a fraternal organization ? There they discuss their common 

 interests. 



Westfield is a great fraternal town. There is a branch of 

 almost every secret society known, and each new one suc- 

 ceeds. In a year the societies paid out nearly $13,000 of 



