PKEFACE. 



AMONG the many remarkable events of the present century, 

 there are none more worthy of patient and careful study than 

 the important movement among the agricultural classes, which 

 has been popularly termed "The Farmer's War Against 

 Monopolies." The rapid and astounding growth of this 

 movement, the formation of Farmers' Granges in every part 

 of the Union, and the remarkable success which has at- 

 tended every step of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, 

 have nitide it the most closely and anxiously observed 

 of any of the movements of the day. The people of the 

 United States are deeply interested in it, and on all sides there 

 is a growing desire to know more of it. Men cannot help 

 regarding with a deep interest an organization which bids 

 fair to embrace the whole agricultural population at an early 

 period, and which proposes to exert the enormous strength and 

 power of this class of our countrymen as a compact and united 

 force for the accomplishment of a definite object. They natu- 

 rally desire to know if this new and powerful element in our 

 public affairs is to exert its power for good or for evil ; whether 

 it is to work for the good of the whole country, with a wise and 

 generous regard for the welfare of all classes, or whether it 

 seeks only the advancement of its own interests regardless of 

 the rights or well-being of others. Even those who laughed at 



the movement in its infancy, are now forced to confess that the 



5 



