SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE. 261 



failures are rare even in states which maintain absolutely no inspection 

 is conclusive evidence of the long strides forward which the public 

 conscience and the public demands have made in banking. 



Personal letters to me from bankers in representative counties in 

 Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina corrob- 

 orate testimony from other sources that the escape of the farmers 

 from the lien system is being hastened and their independence assured 

 just in proportion as they themselves manifest principles of integrity 

 and promptness in their financial affairs; and secondly, as the local 

 bankers or other lenders of cash at legal rates stand ready to make 

 advances to farmers. 



The three following typical letters illustrate the progress of the 

 southern farmer towards independence. The first is from northwestern 

 Mississippi and presents an agricultural population whose own short- 

 comings debar them from assistance : 



Our farmers are in much better condition as regards the lien system. The 

 majority either borrow money by trust deed or personal security, usually the 

 former. Our banks extend accommodation to farmers where they can give 

 anything like reasonable or satisfactory security. However, this class of our 

 business has not proven very profitable or satisfactory, for the reason that, 

 in majority of cases, farmers do not realize the necessity of being prompt in 

 meeting their obligations; consequently entail considerable trouble and worry 

 in collecting same, thus in large degree oflFsetting the profit in interest, as well 

 as the pleasure of business. . . . They need assistance and organization, and 

 all the encouragement possible from such institutions as ours. 



The second, from a central Georgia county, not nearly so favored by 

 nature as many others, shows the results of energy, integrity and busi- 

 ness methods : 



The farmers are borrowing more money from banks than in former years, 

 probably to the extent of 40 or 50 per cent. ... to avoid paying the large 

 credit prices amounting to more than the bank interest. We make these loans 

 principally upon rent notes, (or) stock and crop mortgages with warehouse and 

 personal endorsement. Our farmers we think in better condition than at 

 any time in twenty years. 



The third is from a rich county in southwest Georgia whose farmers 

 have learned business methods approximately as well as its merchants, 

 and are approaching the situation in which they will borrow only to 

 retrieve disaster or to enlarge their operations : 



The farmers in the territory supplied by this bank appear to be in better 

 condition each year for the last two or three, and mortgages and liens are 

 getting to be the exception, whereas they were formerly the rule. Almost 

 all the loans to farmers are made on personal security only, and the volume 

 of these loans is decreasing. We can not speak for other sections, but our 

 observation of south Georgia is that the escape from the lien system is general. 



Such is the condition of the southern farmer, with whose well-being 

 is wrapped up so much of our best interests. He needs better trained 

 and more moral labor, access to credit at reasonable rates when he re- 

 quires it, and a system of education suited to his life work. 



