Featured Article » Nonfiction

Home On the Grange

Written by Kevin H. Evans

 

 

 

Take Europe . . .

 

The state of agriculture in the 1600s is unique. Nothing approaching the modern standardization of methods existed. One can find farming practices ranging from the ancient to the modern. This is mostly because of the large number of diverse political systems in existence, with the result that agriculture was not practiced in quite the same way anywhere in Europe.

In the seventeenth-century we have a fairly interesting problem. Really phenomenal things were going on, chief among them the Reformation. Also we have competition between different groups of nobility over the control of Europe. This competition not only existed between nation states but also between family members who are the leaders of these various nation states. All of this offers a great deal of information available on the really interesting political and socio-economic stuff, but it buries information about the more prosaic activities of the time.

This is a lot like trying to find a bread recipe from the Middle Ages. Because everybody knew how to make bread, nobody thought it was important to write down just exactly how bread was really made. So modern scholars have to make educated guesses based on secondary material.

Much like baking, farming can be classed as a prosaic activity. A lot of data about farming is not available without the type of research archaeologists do when they extrapolate records, recreate sites, and experiment on differing techniques. As a result, information about how farming was accomplished at this time has to be ferreted out from the data available. Close study of articles, paintings, journals, tax reports, land records, archaeological information, and family histories must be made in order to recreate just how people were going about gaining products from the land.

As far as I can tell, almost every system of farming that had been developed throughout history was still in use in one form or another in seventeenth-century Germany. Evidence exists that everything from large estates worked by serfs, individual family farms, collective corporate villages, command-driven tenant farmers, to monastic orders was in use in the 1630s.

The type of agricultural production used at any farm was largely a function of the political leadership and tradition of a given area. Adding more confusion were the enormous entanglements in regard to land ownership. It was not uncommon for land to be owned by one person, managed by another person, rented by a third person, and farmed by a fourth. Added into this mess of ownership were various feudal and religious duties that were owed by the various numbers of people somehow related to a particular parcel of land. As a result, almost anything we can imagine existed somewhere in one form or another.

Slightly off topic, but this mishmash of ownership and entailment is what drove my family to immigrate to the United States in the 1800s. Basically they just wanted to own their own land without strings from anyone else.

 

****

 

According to canon, the area immediately around Grantville has the majority of the farmers living in small villages, usually of six to twelve extended families who rent their land and pay the rent mostly in goods and services. Lease durations were usually ninety-nine years or three generations, whichever was shorter. New leases were arranged between owners, tenants, and prospective buyers, normally with professional legal help.

The techniques used in this area of Europe are not as primitive as they could be, but there would be a lot of room for improvement, especially with the advances in hybrid strains, new farm equipment, and methods of enriching the soil that have been developed in the last one hundred years of our time line.

Also, I infer from my research that the local farmers are intensely interested in improving the production of their land. This interest is generated by the fact that farmers tend to benefit directly from increases in their production.

 

****

 

Historically, the Patrons of Husbandry (the Grange) promoted organized buying and selling by the farming community, as well as the development of new and more effective farming techniques and processes. The combination of a Grange organization and a county agent-style Agricultural Information Office could greatly speed the spreading of new agricultural techniques and information throughout the farming population. This new organization, in combination with other organizations like the Committees of Correspondence, will be a powerful tool in the effort to shape public opinion and provide higher standards of living throughout the entire population.

So the question becomes: "How will the Grange organization affect society in 1632?"

 

Add in the Grange . . .

 

In the United States, the Grange is a long-term, stable organization of individuals concerned with farming and production of agricultural products. In actuality the term "Grange" is modern shorthand for the actual name of the organization, which is:

 

The Order of Patrons of Husbandry, the National Grange.

 

This organization was formed shortly after the American Civil War in order to enable farmers to organize as a group. Their goal was to improve prices and working conditions on their farms. While not specifically started as a labor organization, the effect of the Grange was that the organization led to the virtual elimination of buying from middlemen, improved farming techniques, and coordinated marketing in order to obtain the best prices for their products.

Founded in 1866 by Oliver Hudson Kelley and several others, the Grange was formed as a fraternal organization. The majority of the seven founders of the order were also members of the Masonic Order. Perhaps because of this, the Grange developed as a formal, fraternal, ritualistic organization. It was formed into a society with degrees and rituals denoting a member's position within the group.

Key among the founding principles, was that the Grange was an organization for both men and women, and men and women enjoyed equal status within the organization. Another precept was that while the organization was Christian, it was not sectarian and was very egalitarian in its approach. They very clearly supported farmers without respect to sex, age, religion or race.

In 1874 at a national meeting of the Grange, a declaration of purposes for the National Grange was created. Chief among these were two general objects:

 

1. United by the strong and faithful tie of Agriculture, and the usual result to labor for the good of our order, our country, and mankind.

2. We heartily endorse the motto: "In Essentials, Unity; in Nonessentials, Liberty; in all things, Charity."

 

Another significant attribute of most Grange organizations was the existence of the Grange Hall, commonly called "The Grange." This was where meetings and activities took place. A manual, titled Manual of Subordinate Granges of the Patrons of Husbandry, was published in 1878 wherein all the activities of the Grange were detailed. The basic forms and purposes of meetings were set forth in this manual.

The organization is administrated as follows: on the local level, you have what are called Subordinate Granges. On the county level, Subordinate Granges are organized into groups called Pomona Granges. The Pomona Granges are collected into the organization called the National Grange. An interesting side note is that a Pomona Grange did not refer to one specific Grange, but was a general title given to any Grange that governed a county size area and had Subordinate Granges reporting to it. It seems that the founders of the Patrons of Husbandry did not want to say County Grange as it reflected ties to a royal system not in favor.

 

Enter Grantville . . .

 

Into the mix in 1600s Europe, we drop our Americans. Grantville brings with it an enormous amount of wealth and prosperity, at least within the limits of the town itself. One of the big problems for the up-timers is to reduce the resentment and jealousy of the surrounding countryside in regards to this apparent wealth and prosperity. ...