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' :^S< » k “ 7 ..'uMallßt ’ v» 7 ..;%-§?* -. A AMlfi IWwMK , X/nSyj _. ><<■.''j i - VOLUME I. iibfSßllSei California has over one hundred Granges in full activity. The organization of Granges in Kentucky is progressing rapidly. At Dakota, lowa, the Patrons of Husbandry have established a Woolen Factory, with a cap ital of thirty thousand dollars. The farmers of Coweta county, Georgia, gen erally, have determined to use less guano here after, and to require more reasonable terms of the freedmen. It is a significant fact that no political organ, or any prominent politican has, as yet, openly dared to oppose the farmers united as Patrons of Husbandry. The Farmers' Vindicator, an excellently con ducted paper, has been declared the official journal of the Mississippi Patrons of Hus bandry. The ritual and manual of the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry is to lx? translated into German, and it is said German Lodges are to be formed in the West. », ♦ The Patrons of Husbandry iy the Southern States, number at present, 2,500 Granges, and are rapidly increasing. This is about one third of all the subordinate Granges of the Order in the United States. The National Grange has recently completed arrangements in New York city, by which Granges throughout the entire country can or der and receive all kinds of goods at exceeding ly reduced prices. Within a very recent period State Granges have liven organized in Louisiana, New Jersey, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, West Vir ginia, Alabama. These States arefillingup with flourishing, wide-awake subordinate Granges. Let the good work prosper. o—<40 —<4 Forsyth (Ga.) Grange has elected the fol lowing officers for the current year: L. A. Ponder, Overseer; R. C. McGough, Lecturer; W. P. Ponder, Steward ; B. 11. Napier, Secre tary ; W. A. Pye, Treasurer; Geo. S. Smith, Chaplain ; Gideon Leary, Gate-keeper; Mrs. J. S. Lawton, Ceres; Mrs. Geo. W. Adams, Pomona; Mrs. Thos. M. Brantley,Flora; Mrs. W. A. Pye, Lady Assistant Steward; M. T. Harper, Councilman. The champion cotton-grower of Henry county, Tennessee, is John 11. Toombs, ami the champion corn-grower is W. L. D. Hill. The Paris Intelligencer say’s: “Mr. Toombs made this season nine heavy bales of cotton on twelve acres of land. It has all been picked out, ginned and packed. Mr. Hill raised, on the farm of J. M. Todd, a few hundred yards from Cottage Grove, on two measured acres of land, 37 barrels, or 185 bushels of corn—92l bushels per acre. The Central Council of Patrons of Husban dry, at Madison, Mississippi, recently adopted the following resolution : JuA»/ve<i, That the delegates to this council are hereby instructed to call in person on the m tubers of their respective Granges,to ascertain the number oflules of cotton each is willing to pledge for shipment to Liverpool direct ;«ulso the earliest possible date at which such cotton can be delivered at Canton, or other depot, for said shipment. The Patrons are responding to the resolution, putting down tens and twenties on the spot. ACCOBDING to a report lately read by Herr J. Reugg, at a scientific meeting at Seeberzig, in Switzerland, all the cattle in Europeamount to 94,700,000 head. Os these Germany owns 13,000,000; Austria 13,000,000; France 12,- 000,000; Great Britain 10,000,000; Turkey 9,000,000; Spain and Portugal 4,500,000; Den mark 4,000,000; Italy 3,500,000; Sweden and Norway 2.500.000; Holland and Belgium 2,000,000; Greece 1,000,000; and Switzerland 1,000,000. The little Republic of Switzerland stands at the head of the list in pro|»ortion to its extent and population, owning 208 head of cat tle for each thousand acres, and 567 head for each thousand inhabitants Spain has only 39 head for each thousand acres of its superficies. No one who joins a Grange is obliged to trade, buy and sell, through the Grange, al though experience proves that all who do so find it more profitable, as well as economical. Nor is it true, as unimformed persons have stated, that a property qualification is required of those who desire to join. A private letter from Vernon county, Mis souri, speaking of the prosperous condition of of the Order in that vicinity, says : “Several leading merchants of Fort Scott have made us fine offers for our trade —goods at ten per cent, above cost. They furnish their mark and the Grange their seal, so that there will be no cheating, and they will give their books and invoices for inspection, if we wish it. A committee will visit Fort Scott soon, to make necessary arrangements.” Tea Culture in Georgia. Mrs. R. J. Screven, of Mclntosh, Liber.y county, Georgia, contributes the following in teresting article on the successful culture of tea in our State, to the Rural New Yorker: 1 was very much gratified on hearing that you were pleased with the samples of tea I sent you. As you requested me to write to you again, I have thought that an ac count of our experience in tea culture might be interesting to you, and to some of your readers, as several persons, since reading your notice of my tea, have sent to me for seed, and inquired as to how the plant was cultivated. When the United States Government, through the agency of Mr. Fortune, intro duced the Chinese tea plant {Thea Bohea} into this country, and distributed them by the aid of its Senators into various sections of the land, my father had fifty plants sent to him. They arrived in good order, grow ing in genuine Chinese soil, and were from three to four inches high. We put them at once in larger pots, with fresh rich soil around them, but were very careful not to disturb the ball of earth which surrounded their roots. During the first summer, they were kept in a partial shade and watered freely whenever necessary. They grew oil' beautifully, and by the next winter were from eighteen to twenty-four inches high, and looked very healthy. In the month of January we planted them out in our vegeta ble garden, five feet apart each way. They grew remarkably well, not one dying, and stood both the cold of winter, and the heat of summer as well as our natural plants. When three years old, we made our first gathering of leaves. We had the di rections Mr. Fortune gave, for the prepara tion of tea. and we were particular in fol lowing them closely. Os course we had none of the conveniences which are used in China, but we tried to imitate them as near ly as possible. We plucked the leaves in the afternoon and spread them out upon a table until next morning. We then rubbed them in our hands, and dried them in a common Dutch oven, stirring all the time with the hand to prevent scorching the leaves. Each turn was dried in five minutes, then taken out and rolled again. This process of roll ing and drying was continued until they appeared perfectly dry. It was then put in glass jars and kept well secured from the air. In about three months’ time we began using it, and were delighted with our suc cess. Os course all our friends must have a drawing and each one pronounced it most excellent. Since that time we have made our own tea every spring, and we consider it so far superior to the imported tea that we find no pleasure in drinking the latter. Me made quite a mistake in placing our tea plants five feet apart, for thev have grown so large that it is impossible to walk between them, and they are about ten feet high. 1 hese bushes produce seed everv season in great abundance. From these seeds we now have between fifteen and twen ty thousand plants of various sizes, and we continue to plant the seeds out everv fall as soon as they ripen. Many of them*fall to the ground, and come up thickly under the parent tree. We have quite a grove set out ten feet apart, and from these we are now col lecting the most of our leaves. The climate in this latitude suits them per fectly, and there is no more trouble in cultiva ting them than there is with the apple or ;>ear. When a plantation is once established it lasts a life time, and alter the bushes are three years old, they require only the weeds to be kept out of them for they shade around their roots so perfectly as to kill out the grass. If our Gov ernment would again become interested in mak ing tea one of our staple productions, we would, in a few years, lie quite independent of Chinese production. The Monroe (Forsyth, Ga.,) -IcitYTfiser, in one of its recent issues had the following sug gestive item “Mr. Cyrus Sharp, clerk of the Superior Court, informs us that about sixtv Factors’ liens have been foreclosed up to this time, aggregating to about $30,000. This is a moral item, that should be studied by our farmers.” FRANKLIN PRINTING HOUSE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 187-1. The Cotton Tax. THE FORSYTH GRANGE RESOLUTIONS AND THE MAJORITY AND MINORITY RE- PORTS, SUBMITTED AT THE LAIE GRANGE CONVENTION. The following are the resolutions adopted by the Forsyth Grange, and submitted to the late Grange Convention, with an interesting and i able speech, by Captain L. A. Ponder, as a ! substitute for both the majority and minority reports of the Special Committee on this sub ject: Resolved, That in the opinion of Forsyth Grange, the Cotton Tax Act was unconstitu tional and oppressive, and that it is the duty of Congress to pass a law refunding to the pro ducer said tax, with the least possible delay, in order to do justice to the producer, as well as to restore the independence of that class upon whom the virtue and liberty of the whole conn try depend. j Resolved, That we look with indignation on any I effort, by the purchasers of cotton to get the lax refunded to them, either by the act of Con- i; is ■ lIE | j Si ~ iifliiitf'iirawfaifl • ’.■»■•• •? MJ? if » ®''<"l iiiHM / “learning to write.” gross, or the adjudication of tbe Court of Claitrs. That we expect our Senators and Representatives in C >ngn ss to use the most earnest and untiring efforts to procure this measure of right and justice to the cotton plan ters of the South.” The majority report is as follows: 1 hat we respectively request our Represen tatives and Senators in Congress to urge the en actment of a law restoring to the legitimate claimants the unconstitutional tax imposed upon cotton crops of 1862 and 1867 inclusive. The minority report is as follows: The minority report recommends that our Senators and Representative- in Congress be requested to urge the passage of a bill refunding the tax collected : first, to the party who held the cotton at the time of passage of the act in 1862, and all the balance of the tax to the pro ducer and n>> other person. under such proof anil regulations as Congress in the act may prescribe The majority report was ad pted. Mr. B. F. Wardlow, of Madison, is the W. M. of the Florida State Grange. Depressed Condition of the South. Mr. Edward King, who has been traveling through the South writing a series of papers for Scrib-.er's Monthly, says : “The planters have unfortunately trusted too much to cotton. Em barrassed by various financial difficulties, they mortgaged their crops in advance to buy food for their negroes. It has been a bad year. The caterpillar has stripped the fields. The yield of cotton in some sections is not half the average; it is not enough to pay the advances on the crop, and leaves nothing for the winter. All the corn, and flour, and bacon, all the cloth ing, and other manufactured goods for these exclusively cotton growing districts must be brought from abroad. There is no money to pay for them, so the planter and his laborers go cold and hungry. Till industry in the South is organized upon a more provident system, a crisis like this will be a frequent occurrence and a constant menace. There are two remedies. One is in the hands of the Southern people themselves, and con- sists in raising with tl.eir cotton at least moder ate supply of food for home consumption. It is madness to live year after year at the mercy of money lenders and caterpillars. The other is in our hands, and we should lose no time in applying it. It the South could manufacture its own cotton it would have work and wages for the idle. To do this it needs capital. Mills have been established in some places and are doing well : there are thirteen cotton mills in Alabama, and nothing but the want of capital prevents their erection at all the centres of cot ton production which are now suffering most severely for the lack of food. In manufactur ing enterprise, however, the South is unable to make a single step without help from us. Des titute and burdened with debt, it looks to the North for aid. Any man who will build a cot ton mill in these destitute? districts will do a more beneficient deed than the founding of a hospital or the opining of a soup kitchen.* And it is a charity which will pav —not the priceless rewards which are reserved for the next life, but the sordid dividend- which follow a gc-«d business speculation in this. Mark Twain on Woman, Mark Twain, the well-known humorist, re plied to the toast of the ladies at the festival of the Scottish Corporation of London. In doing so, he said : lam proud, indeed, of the dis tinction of being chosen to respond to this es pecial toast, to “The Ladies,” or to woman, if you please, for that is the preferable term, per haps ; it is certainly the older, and therefore the more entitled to reverence. [Laughter.] I have noticed that the Bible, with that plain, blunt honesty which is such a conspicuous char acteristic of the Scriptures, is always particular to never refer to even the illustrious mother of mankind herself as a “lady,” but speaks of her as a woman. [Laughter.] It is odd, but you will find it so. I am peculiarly proud of of this honor, because I think that the toast to women is one which, by right and by every rule of gallantry, should take precedence of all others —of the army, of the navy, of even roy alty itself, perhaps, though the latter is not necessary in this day and in this land, for the reason that, tacitly, you do drink a broad general health to all good women when you drink the health of the Queen of Eng land and the Princess of Wales. [Loud cheers.] I have in mind a poem just now which is familiar to you all, familiar to everybody. And what an inspiration that was (and how instantly the present toast recalls the verses to all our minds) when the most noble, the most gracious, the purest ar.d sweetest of all poets says: “Woman. O woman? or Worn—” —[laughter]—however, you remember the lines; and you remember how feelingly, how daintily, how almost imperceptibly the verses raise up before you, feature by fea ture, the of a true and perfect woman ; and how, as you contemplate the finished marvel, your homage grows into worship of the intellect that could create so fair a thing out of mere breath, mere words. And you call to mind now as I speak how the poet, with stern fidelity to all human ity, delivers this beautiful child of his heart and his brain over to the trials and the sor rows that must come to all sooner or later that abide in the earth ; and how the pathet ic story culminates in that apostrophe—so wild, so regretful, so full of morunful re trospection. The lines run thus : “Alas '—alas I—a—alas 1 ——Alas! —alas!” —and so on. [Laughter.] Ido not remem ber the rest; but, taken altogether, it seems to me that the poem is the noblest tribute to woman that humans genius has ever brought forth —[laughter]—and I feel that if I were to talk hours I could not do iny great theme completer or more graceful justice than I have now done in simply quoting that poet’s matchless words. [Re newed laughter.] The phases of the wo manly nature are infinite in their variety. Take any type of woman, and you shall find in it something to respect, something to admire, something to love. And you shall find the whole joining you heart and hand. Who was more patriotic than Joan of Arc ? Who was braver ? Who has given us a grander instance of self-sacrific ing devotion? Ah, you remember, you remember well what a throb of pain, what a great tidal wave of grief swept over us all when Joan of Arc fell at Waterloo. [Much laughter.] Who does not sorrow for the loss of Sappho, the sweet singer of Israel ? Mho among us does not miss the gentle ministrations, the soft ening influences, the humble piety of Lucretia Borgia ? [Laughter.] M’ho can join in the heartless libel that says woman is extravagant in dress when he can look back and call to mind our simple and lowly mother Eve array ed in her modification of the Highland cos tume. [Roars of laughter.] Sir, women have been soldiers,women have been painters,women have been poet.-. As long as language lives the name of Cleopatra will live. And not be cause she conquered George 111., [laughter.] but because she wrote those divine lines — “Let dogs delight to bark and bite, For God Lath made them so.” [More laughter.] The story of the world is adorned with the names of illustrious ones of our own sex —some of them sons of St. Andrew, too —Scott, Bruce, Burns, the warrior M’allace Ben Nevis —[laughter]—the gifted Ben Lo mond, and the great new Scotchman, Ben Dis reali. [Great laughter.] Out of the great plains of history tower whole mountain ranges of sublime women—the Queen of Sheba, Jose phine, Semiramis, Sairey Gamp; the list is endless, [laughter,] but I will not call the mighty roll; the names rise up in your own memories at the mere suggestion, luminous with the glory of deeds that cannot die, hallow ed by the loving worship of the good and the true of all epochs and all climes. [Cheers.] Suffice it for our pride and our honor that we in our day have added to it such names as those of Grace Darling and Florence Nightin gale. [Cbeeics.] Woman is all that she should be—gentle, patient, long-suffering, trustful, un selfish, full of generous impulses. It is her blessed mission to comfort the sorrowing, plead for the erring, encourage the faint of purpose succor the distressed, uplift the fallen, be friend the friendless—in a word, afford the healing of her sympathies and a home in her heart for all the bruised and persecuted chil dren of misfortune that knock at its hospitable door. [Cheers.] And when I say God bles B her, there is none among us who has known the ennobling affection of a wife [or the stead fast devotion of a mother, but in his heart will say, Amen I [Loud and prolonged cheering.] The Farmers' Fiadicator, the official organ of the Mississippi Patrons of Husbandry, pub lishes the following “Plan for a Grange Bank,” as submitted by W. M., 8. W. Land, of Rocky Point Grange, of that State. It is worthy of consideration : “I would propose that a char ter for a bank, with all the privileges, fran chises and immunities, be obtained, to be called “ The Grange Bank of Mississippi;” to be officered, supervised and controlled by the State Grange. In order to accumulate a fund, or bullion—if you please—upon which its op erations shall be based, let a temporary contri bution or sale of bales of cotton, be made, to be paid with the currency of the proposed bank, with interest at per cent., at such times as may be agreed upon by the State Grange. Let this cotton be sold for gold and placed in the vaults of the bank. M r e will say, for demonstration, that by the time this can be effected, that there will be four hundred Granges in the State. Al low that each Grange contributes or sells twen ty-five bales of cotton —average weight 450 pounds. This would give ten thousand bales of cotton, which, at seventy-five dollars per bale, would produce a fund of seven hundred thousand dollars in gold. Upon this sum, as is the custom, one million four hundred thous and dollars in the currency of the Grange Bank, could lie issued. One halt of this sum— plus the interest—could be used inpayment for the original supply of cotton, and the balance 1 > constitute a medium for the benefit and relief of Patrons. When a mortgagee threatens to force a crop, or homestead, upon a depressed market, let the subordinate Grange to which the member belongs indorse his note, with sea* of Grange, etc., for the requisite sum ; have it discounted in the bank, and lift the mortgage, and give the brother the benefit of the best market price. Or, where a member has not the means, (and is found worthy,) to purchase the necessary supplies, let the subordinate Grange come to his relief in some similar manner. In all other respects let the ordinary rules and customs of banking obtain in conducting the general business of “The Grange Bank of Mis sissippi.” _ Standard Weights—For grain, seed, etc., per bushel: M’heat should weigh 60 pounds Corn, shelled 56 pounds Corn, on the cob .. 70 pounds j{y e 56 pounds (Jats 36 pounds Barlev 46 pounds Buckwheat 52 pounds Irish potatoes 60 pounds Sweet potatoes 50 pounds Onions’ 57 pounds Beans 60 pounds Clover seed 64 pounds Tiniothv seed 45 pounds Flax seed 45 pounds Hempseed 45 pounds Blue grass seed 14 pounds Dried peaches 33 pounds The Vermont Patrons of Husbandry have made arrangements by which they now receive their groceries from Boston at wholesale prices. NUMBER 11.