150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Secondly, he is doing a banking business, for which he is 

 not prepared, and he does not hke it. He virtually loans 

 money (the price, that is, of the goods which he sells) to a 

 farmer whom he scarcely knows, for an indefinite time, six 

 months, perhaps, without a note, without security and with- 

 out a formal charge for interest. He waits ten or twelve 

 months or even longer for the money which he paid for the 

 raw materials and the labor which went into their mixing and 

 manufacture. But the money thus virtually lent, in a most 

 unbusinesslike way, to some of his customers, he himself bor- 

 rows at the bank. He pay^ interest on it, he gives adequate 

 security to the bank for it, and he must pay his notes on the 

 day they come due, or he must stop doing business. 



Now, the manufacturer simply must be reimbursed for all 

 this. His risk is considerable, the time of payment is uncer- 

 tain, and so the payment, when it does come, must cover all. 

 That is fair. It is not defrauding or crowding the farmer ; 

 it is proper and it is necessary. 



Now, this payment for doing a banking business comes 

 in, most unostentatiously, in the price — the time price — of 

 the goods, which ranges from five to ten or more per cent. 

 above the spot cash price. 



Of course, when competition is sharp, a selling agent may 

 cut this percentage somewhat, but he cannot, as a matter of 

 business, afford to cut it much. This time price is a matter 

 which is .often misunderstood and sometimes causes hard 

 feeling. But it is very simple. It should be clearly under- 

 stood that the difference between a spot cash price and a time 

 price is practically an interest charge. To pay it is to borrow 

 money to buy fertilizers at a high rate from a somewhat un- 

 willing lender. This is bad business. 



For one thing, it is demoralizing. It is like the install- 

 ment plan clothing business. " You wear the clothes while 

 you pay for them," says the advertisement. In other words, 

 you " travel on your uppers." 



It is expensive, for another thing. I do not believe the 

 business of farming will stand it. 



It is very unsafe, in the third place. The cash return to 

 the farmer for commercial fertilizers must generally come, if 

 at all, in the crop following their use. If he cannot meet his 

 fertilizer bills with the same season's harvest, he is in quick- 



