troduced to the Petrified Forest; but we saw enough of the new
and beautiful to give us lasting recollections of Colorado and the
South Park.

S.C. CLARKE.

THE PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY.

"Do you know anything about this 'grange' business?" asked a lady
from the city the other day; and she added, "I can hardly take up a
magazine or newspaper without falling on the words 'grange,' 'Patrons
of Husbandry,' 'farmers' movement,' and all that."

"Why, I am a Patron myself," I replied.

"What! you have a _grange_ here in this little New Jersey sandbank?"
she exclaimed incredulously, and plied me with a storm of questions.

It was a quiet, rainy evening, and I devoted the whole of it to
answering her queries, reading documents from our head-quarters,
and quoting Mr. Adams's treatise on the _Railroad Systems_ and other
authorities to explain the present war between producers and carriers;
and, believing that there are many others who, like my friend, are
disposed to look into this "grange business," I will give them the
substance of our conversation. A great deal of that which has found
its way into the press touching our order is more characterized by
confidence than correctness of statement. In a late magazine article
it is stated that the organization known as the _Patrons of Husbandry_
"was originally borrowed from an association which for many years
had maintained a feeble existence in a community of Scotch farmers in
North Carolina." This statement has no foundation in fact. The
order is not the out-growth directly, or even indirectly, of any
pre-existing organization. It is the result, so far as it is possible
to trace impulses to their source, of the suggestion of a lady,
communicated some years ago to Mr. O.H. Kelley, the present secretary
of the National Grange, and the person who has done more than any
other to establish the order as it exists to-day. The suggestion was
in substance this: Why cannot the farmers protect themselves by a
national organization, as do other trades and professions? Mr. Kelley
seized the idea with enthusiasm, worked out the plan of a secret
society, and traveled over the country seeking to arouse the
farmers to organize for their mutual advantage. He met with constant
disappointment at first, and his family and friends implored him to
abandon a project which threatened to absorb every cent he possessed,
as it did all his time and energy. But he persevered against every
discourage