352 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



on too many dead dollars. It is not my purpose to go into the 

 minute details of these institutions, as that is quite a long story. 



The more important of the European credit systems is com- 

 monly known as the system of "land banks." Laws differ in many 

 details in the various countries, but the general principles upon 

 which they are based are quite universal. The first and all-im- 

 portant fundamental idea is absolute safety for the funds invested 

 in these farm-mortgage securities. An issue of $100,000,000 of 3 

 per cent, 70-year negotiable bonds of $20 denominations was 

 authorized a few years ago by the Credit Foncier of France and this 

 was so popular that it was over-subscribed eighteen times. These 

 bonds are issued against first mortgage real estate and find a ready 

 market on any of the European exchanges. Putting them in the 

 bond form they are easily handled, and being in small amounts, 

 people of limited means are investing in them much on the same 

 principle as the gold bond issue of the United States was subscribed 

 for a few years ago. 



The land laws of Denmark and of Ireland have rendered an 

 enormous aid to the men of small means desirous of owning a piece 

 of land. These laws have put human rights al)ove property rights 

 and have divided the land owners into two classes, one the resident 

 owner and the other the nonresident owner. The state steps in 

 with the right to secure ownership by buying the land of the non- 

 resident owner, and the price is determined by a commission. If 

 the prospective purchaser has ten per cent of this price here, the 

 state or some of the credit societies will lend the money and pay 

 for the remainder and take a long time loan, running usually from 

 40 to 70 years. A small amortization rate is charged in addition 

 to the legal interest rate. That is in the event that the legal rate 

 of interest be 3 per cent and the borrower is charged 5 per cent, 

 and by the 5 per cent payment every year he pays his interest and 

 pays off the principal in just fifty years. These loans, however, 

 may be paid at any interest-paying period. 



Under the operation of this law since 1906, the tenant owner- 

 ship of land in Ireland has increased more than in the thirty years 

 prior to that time, while in Denmark eighty-nine farmers out of 

 every hundred now own the land they till. These very conditions 

 lead to co-operation in matters of buying and selling, as each indi- 

 vidual member is interested directly or financially in the interests 

 of every other member. While the main thing that we need in 

 this country is the ability to handle the farmers' credit, which is 

 the very best credit in the world, I believe at this time that what 



