Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1874 — GRANGE ITEMS. [ARTICLE]

GRANGE ITEMS.

... .There we nearly 150,000 Patrons in Georgia. ....Thetotal Grange membership in the'United States is now estimated at over ... .Alter a Grange has been formed, the initiation fee for members is five dollars for men and two dollars for women. ....In 1,818 Granges in lowa it is claimed there are no less than 25,000 women, each of whom is empowered to vote. —D. W. Stewart, Secretary of the Ohio Btale Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, recently reported about 800 Granges in the State and a rapidly-increasing revenue. ... .The Indiana State Grange has decided that no one may be propeny admitted who does not depend more upon the products of his farm for his income than upon any other occupation. . ...The Petersburg Index gives a hopefhl account of Grange matters in Virginia: “We confidently believe that in twelve months from this time every county in the State of Virginia will be represented in the State Grange, and in many counties every township.” ... .It is estimated that there will not be less than from 50,000 to 75,000 Grangers in Tennessee before next fall. The order is experiencing a wonderfully rapid growth, and soon there will scarcely be a fanner in the State who will not be a member of some Grange. ... .The Grange movement is still sweeping Georgia. New Granges are being organised every week. Thousands of the best and most solid farmers are joining them and working in them with all their might; and if you could see how the Grange meetings are attended, how men and their families come from a distance to be present, and how resolute is their purpose when they come, you would be convinced that the Granges are a reality which cannot be ignored or laughed or sneered out of’existence. There is hardly a farmer or planter of intelligence and influence in the State, and I have a very wide-spread acquaintance among them, who is not a working member of a Grange. Most heartily do I wish the movement God-speed. The more I learn about it the more do I approve it and wish to see it sweep Hie land.— Gor. Southern Farmer. ... .The Grange aims to increase knowledge by stimulating mental activity and aiding inquiry, to add dignity to labor and elevate the social position of the husbandman, to mutually relieve sickness and suffering among the fraternity, to prevent cruelty to animals, to lessen litigation and its consequent ills, to collect accurate statistics of products and gain a fuller knowledge of markets, to give a better understanding of the principles of business and the laws of trade, to overthrow the credit system and encourage the practice of true economy, to bring the manufacturer nearer the producer and foster a varied home industry, to place the producer and consumer in nearer relations to each other, to teach better culture of the soil, to surround our homes with beauty and comfort, to avoid imposition and to disjpense with middle-men as far as practicable, and to inculcate morality ana temperance, foster education and cultivate brotherly love among mankind. —lndiana Farmer.