218 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



six per cent on three years time, not ninety days, nor sixty 

 days, nor thirty days, 



A little while ago I was in St. Louis and made a talk to the 

 bankers and one of the newspapers reported me about as I said 

 it, but the other reported it a little differently, and then an edi- 

 torial in one paper, taking the report from another paper, made 

 me say this: "Pettis county bankers wjll not lend Pettis county 

 farmers money with which to feed cattle." Now anybody that 

 knows anything at all about it knows that that is not true; that 

 bankers do lend many men with good standing what money they 

 need to feed cattle, often it being the case that the banker has 

 to borrow money from another bank in order to accommodate 

 such a customer. But the bankers do not lend farmers money 

 with which to breed cattle, and until more farmers breed cattle 

 they never relieve the cattle shortage. The farmers quit breed- 

 ing cattle for the reason that it was not profitable. This is 

 the only reason; it cannot be figured out any other way. We 

 must bring about a condition that will make the breeding of 

 beef cattle profitable. If the banker lends this money to a 

 young man, a beginner on the farm, lends him this money with 

 which to buy cows, who gets it? Tom, Dick or Harry? No. 

 (Maybe Abraham, Isaac and Jacob could, while maybe giving 

 too much consideration to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and not 

 giving enough consideration to Tom, Dick and Harry.) When 

 a man makes an application for a loan it will be my business as 

 a county man of Pettis county to investigate that fellow, see 

 what he is doing, how he farms, whether he farms mostly in 

 town or out in the country. If he farms mostly in town he is 

 counted out at once; if he is not industrious he is counted out, 

 and if he "boozes" just a little he is counted out. It will be my 

 business to help him in handling his farm in a right manner to 

 get enough feed out of it to feed his cattle. The bank takes 

 the mortgage on the cows with their increase for three years' 

 time, and at the end of three years, under reasonable manage- 

 ment, the increase will easily pay the bill. We put the young 

 man on the farm breeding live stock, growing cattle on the farm, 

 and you cannot point to a man in this country that is growing a 

 good bunch of cattle on his farm and not making his farm better 

 while doing it. These are practical problems that we are trying 

 to work out. This institution has been hammering away for 

 years and trying to drive home the same ideas. Bankers dis- 

 like long-time loans for the chief reason that in the past a panic 



