106 THE STORY OF THE U.F.O. 



rapidly, too, until in 1896 there were only some 

 four thousand subscribers. 



That was the most discouraging stage ever 

 reached in the modern history of Ontario 

 Agriculture. An organization from which much 

 had been expected was no more ; the organ of the 

 Patrons barely continued to exist and its demise 

 appeared to be only a question of time. The 

 fiery enthusiasm of the previous period had given 

 place to a feeling of "What's the use?" Mutual 

 suspicions fostered by old line politicians, had 

 taken the place of mutual trust. It seemed as if 

 farm unity was to be a thing of the past and as if 

 farmers were to become and remain for all time 

 an unorganized, voiceless mass. 



It was at this time that the ablest, one of the 

 most completely unselfish, one of the best 

 friends Ontario farmers ever had, came upon the 

 scene in the person of Gold win Smith. "Came 

 upon the scene" is, however, hardly the phrase 

 that fits the occasion. The sage of the Grange, 

 from the time of his arrival in Canada a quarter 

 of a century before, had been interested in the 

 agricultural life of his adopted Province. With 

 the passing years he became more and more 

 convinced that the hope of democracy in Ontario 

 lay along the concession lines. No one felt the 

 position in which the rural people found them- 

 selves in the late nineties more keenly than he 



