THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 411 



aries went out into the prairies and began to work 

 among those who gave their whole time and attention 

 to the farm that the Order took root. 



" Of many attempts to organize the farmers of Iowa 

 for any purpose, the Grange is the first that has been 

 successful. Farmers' clubs, established under the most 

 favorable circumstances and fostered by the State Board 

 of Agriculture, have always proved short-lived. Not 

 more than eighteen or twenty could ever be kept in 

 active operation at once, and even that small number 

 would soon dwindle away unless the promise of rare 

 seeds or agricultural documents was constantly held 

 out as an inducement to the farmers to continue their 

 meetings, and new clubs were frequently organized to 

 fill the places of those that died. But the Grange 

 seems to have exactly supplied a want of the people. 

 Perhaps the ' hard times ' experienced during the past 

 two or three years by the farmers of Iowa, in common 

 with those of other Western States, aroused them to 

 the necessity of united, intelligent cooperation, and 

 prepared them to welcome the Grange as the first 

 channel opened through which they might hope for 

 relief. At all events, the Order has taken kindly to 

 the soil of Iowa, and has accomplished more here than 

 elsewhere, while the farmers' clubs have long since 

 disappeared." 



The number of Granges in the United States is in- 

 creasing so rapidly that it is hard to give an accurate 

 statement concerning them. The Secretary of the Na- 

 tional Grange formerly issued from his office at Washing- 

 ton a monthly bulletin giving the strength of the Order 

 in each State. The bulletin of January 1st, 1874, places 

 the total number of subordinate Granges at 10,015, 



