1294 iN^EW YoKK State Agricultural Society 



Industrial Commission, put. the matter tersely, and with little ex- 

 aggeration, as affecting his own section of the country, at least, 

 when he said: '^ When I first worked out it took five binders to 

 follow a machine, one man to rake off, and one to carry the 

 bundles together. Xow the hired girl frequently drives a ma- 

 chine that does the whole business." The increase in the value 

 of farm implements and machinery per acre of land in farms 

 from 1900 to 1910 was 02 per cent. Recent years have also wit- 

 nessed a great increase in the demands upon farmers for working 

 capital in the form of artificial fertilizer, the expenditure for 

 which in the United States nearly douldcd in the twenty years 

 ending 1899, and more than doubled again in the ten years 1899 

 to 1909. 



As the result of such tendencies and of the rapid depletion of 

 our free domain, farming in the United States is losing its old 

 time kinship to mining and becoming more like manufacturing. 

 ]\Iore and better machinery and more power are needed on most 

 farms in the interest of efiiciencv. This calls for short-time credit, 

 but a supply of good machinery and of power require a fair sized 

 farm for their efficient utilization^ — ^ hence the need for larger 

 farms and for mortgage credit to make their purchase possible. 

 The manufacturers' business is financed largely throuc'h credit 

 and a given capital is thereby rendered manifoldly efficient. 

 There is a strong prospect +hat a growing percentage of our best 

 farmers will likewise throu2:li the sane use oi credit make their 

 limited capital do more efficient work in the future. 



N"ot only will the farmer need credit in the future more than 

 he has in the past, he will also be in a better position than he 

 is now to get it. 



Our farming population is becoming more settled now that the 

 free lands are practically gone and tlie frontier has disappeared. 

 The isolation of the farmer is rapidly becoming a thing of the 

 past, with the advent of rural free delivery, rural telephone, the 

 aiitoiii()])ile and rlie ])arcel post. The farmer no longer buys gold 

 bricks nor is duped l)y fraudulent lightning rod schemes except 

 ill tlic pages of the comic supplements. 



When scekinti: credit the raniicr can offer l)etter security than 

 ever before. His markets are larger, better organized, more eer- 



