EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. 35. August, 1916. No. 2. 



Since the passage of the Smith-Lever Extension Act in 1914, no 

 agricultural question, among the many pending before Congress, has 

 aroused more widespread interest than that of the provision of more 

 adequate rural credit facilities. During this period, scores of bills, 

 embracing a broad range of remedies, have been proposed. Commis- 

 sions, both State and National, official and unofficial, as well as the 

 United States Government, the agricultural colleges, organizations, 

 and individuals have studied the subject in its various phases in this 

 country and abroad. At length, public opinion has sufficiently crystal- 

 lized to make possible the enactment of a law designed to initiate a 

 Federal system of rural credit based upon farm real estate, and the 

 result is the Federal Farm Loan Act, approved July 17 by President 

 Wilson. 



The passage of legislation of this sort constitutes a notable recogni- 

 tion of American agriculture in a new direction. By the establish- 

 ment of the Federal Department of Agriculture and the system of 

 agricultural colleges and experiment stations and the provision, for 

 many years, of large appropriations to carry on and extend the ac- 

 tivities of these institutions, the principle of Federal aid to agricul- 

 ture through such means as education, systematic research, and the 

 demonstration of improved methods has become firmly accepted. 

 The new legislation, however, recognizes more definitely than ever be- 

 fore that agriculture is a basic industry, one in which loiowledge and 

 skill alone are not sufficient for success, and that it is highly impor- 

 tant that farmers obtain the capital they need on terms consistent 

 with their credit. 



That they have not always been able to do this was indicated by 

 President Wilson in his message of December 7, 1915, advocating the 

 provision of " adequate instrumentalities on which long credits can 

 be obtained on land mortgages," and likewise in a speech made when 

 signing the Act, in which he said : " The farmers, it seems to me, have 

 occupied hitherto a singular position of disadvantage. They have 

 not had the same freedom to get credit on their real assets that others 

 have had who were in manufacturing and commercial enterprises, 



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