4G8 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



very men who are most in need of advice such as a 

 good agricultural journal would give them, are the ones 

 who don't take it probably their failure to read such 

 a paper explains their need of it. To all farmers, good 

 or bad, the Grange offers opportunities of improvement 

 never before within the reach of the country people ex- 

 cept in Farmers' Clubs, and in them only to a limited 

 extent. Experienced, successful men tell in the Grange 

 room how they have made good crops, or why they 

 failed to do so; agricultural newspapers are taken, 

 read and exchanged; important advice is given to 

 young and inexperienced farmers, and each member, 

 no matter how well he> understands his business, is sure 

 to obtain some item of useful information. 



te The Grange teaches the farmer to contract habits 

 of thrift and economy. The man who buys on credit 

 always buys in the highest market, and of no class in 

 the community is this remark more strikingly true than 

 of the farmers. It is no uncommon thing for a bill at 

 the village store to make a, veritable slave of a farmer. 

 A partial failure of his crops, sickness in his family, or 

 other unforeseen occurrence, makes it impossible for him 

 to settle when pay-day comes around, and a mortgage 

 on his farm, at fifteen per cent, interest, is the result. 

 Other men may offer to sell goods to him cheaper, but it 

 may be impossible for him to transfer his trade when 

 such transfer might involve a foreclosure of a mort- 

 gage. The Grange advises all of its members to buy 

 and sell for cash, and to demand such favors as cash 

 purchasers are justly entitled to. If ten per cent, of a 

 man's sales on credit become bad debts, the increase in 

 prices to make up for such loss ought to be charged 

 against those who buy on credit, and not against those 



