RURAL ECONOMICS. 489 



could be obtained to secure bonded storage warehouses in each county and at 

 the principal ports, lower insurance, compressing, weighing, and commission 

 rates, and the authorized agents of the farmer could guarantee the manufac- 

 turer a regular supi)ly at reasonable prices based on supply and demand. The 

 fund could be used to advance to the holder at a nominal i-ate of interest, and 

 any surplus from large crops could be carried over to the next. The agents 

 of the farmer would be in position to advise as to an increase or a decrease 

 in acreage and the advice, coming from an official and friendly source, would 

 be heeded." 



It is claimed that this tax would not be a cost to the grower but would only 

 Ite collecting toll from the middle men and speculators. 



A national reserve association and the movement of cotton in the South, 

 J. L. Laughlin (Jour. Polit. Ecrm., 20 (1912), No. 2, pp. 135-152) .—This article 

 discusses at length the present movement of the cotton crop and the bills of 

 lading arising therefrom, methods of financing this movement by the banks, 

 evils of the present system, and the remedies suggested. 



In connection with the discussion it is stated that the value of unmanufac- 

 tured cotton exported from the Southern States in 1910 was $450,447,234, and 

 that under the present conditions this movement was financed mainly through 

 New York, with an estimated gain to the money lender of several millions of 

 dollars. The question raised is whether the southern banks might not be able 

 to finance this movement more economically through a National Reserve Asso- 

 ciation, which would be in the form of a coopei'ative agency for all banks, and 

 would enable any bank having cotton paper, accompanied by warehouse 

 receipts or bills of lading, to obtain a rediscount at any branch of the associa- 

 tion, thereby obviating a lack of currency during the crop-moving period, 

 attributed largely to the inelasticity of our currency. It is held that by such 

 a cooperative association the South would be enabled to coin its cotton into 

 notes through its own local associations; that there would be no reason for the 

 expensive shipment of cash to and from the great central reserve cities; that 

 this would provide elasticity not only of notes but also of credit; that it would 

 by evolution carry to a wider field of operation the principles of the clearing- 

 house associations, and save the needless move of actual cash, not merely 

 between banks in the same locality, but between different portions of the 

 country ; and that the crop-moving period then would not be a time of great 

 shifting of money reserves and a period of stringency, but a season with 

 increased •purchasing power. 



The rural population of Ohio: Where is it increasing and decreasing? 

 "Why? L. H. GoDDARD (Ohio 8ta. Circ. 116, pp. 15-21, figs. 4). — In connection 

 with an agricultural survey now being conducted by the Ohio Station a limited 

 study of the changes in the rural population of Ohio has been made and is here 

 presented. The circular reproduces 4 maps which are being used in the study, 

 which show by means of dots the percentage of increase or decrease in rural 

 population in each rural township of the State between 1900 and 1910 as re- 

 ported by the last Federal census. 



It is pointed out that out of a total o^ 1,352 townships 70 per cent of them 

 show a loss in rural population. This reduces the rural population of the State, 

 as compared with the total population, from 42 per cent in 1900 to 35 per cent 

 in 1910. 



British rural life and labor, F. G. Heath {London, 1911, pp. XI +3 18). —The 

 author here arranges and presents considerable information, derived in fact 

 from official sources relative to the habits, occupations, wages, systems of labor, 

 earnings, food, dwelling, education, and many other phases of the life of rural 

 laborers in Great Britain. 



