FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 121 



many farmers waste tlieir substance in such simple ways. The power of 

 habit, however, is not easily overcome, and he who has become wedded 

 to slovenliness or carelessness along any of these lines will find that he 

 has fetters of steel to break before he overcomes these failings. 



The one business fault of all others among farmers the most common, 

 and the one over which I have many and many a time unavailingly pon- 

 dered, is their carelessness in keeping business engagements. It is the 

 besetting sin of farmers as a class. My dealings as a loan agent with 

 the farmers of the southern five tiers of counties of Michigan have been 

 quite extensive for the past fifteen years. My loan business has been 

 confined almost exclusively to farm mortgages. I have taken my pick of 

 loans, preferring absolute security to high rates of interest. I have 

 dealt with the best class of farmers I could find in Southern Michigan, 

 and I know whereof I speak when I say that not one farmer in one 

 hundred knows the value of never allowing the payment of principal 

 or interest to lapse a single day without making previous satisfactory 

 arrangements with the man with whom he is dealing. Well can any 

 man afford to spend a whole day, if need be, rather than allow a pay- 

 ment to become past due without a previous satisfactory explanation. 

 That lesson farmers as a class have not learned, and what is the result? 

 That the average rate of interest on farm mortgages in Southern Michi- 

 gan today is six per cent. Farm mortgages are supposed to be as good 

 security as any in the world, and I believe them to be so myself. Yet 

 money has gone begging in the cities for years at four per cent on 

 security not so goocl, or at least not a whit better, while the average 

 rate on farm mortgages has remained at six per cent. The savings 

 banks of the City of Detroit, with all their millions of dollars of capital 

 and deposits seeking investments, will not touch farm mortgages. Why? 

 Solely for the reason I have stated, that farmers cannot be relied upon 

 for ordinary business promptness. Correct this evil practice and I 

 promise you, and I state the words deliberately, that the average farm 

 mortgage interest rates in Southern Michigan will fall from six to four 

 and one-half per cent, or lower. Isn't it worth the trying? The farm- 

 ers of Michigan complain of the high State tax of Michigan, and I don't 

 blame them for it; I complain myself. But if the farmers of Michigan 

 were to correct this one bad business habit they would save in interest 

 alone enough every year to pay their entire State tax. 



I have been asked. Should a farmer voluntarily go in debt? If you 

 are a good business farmer and need more money than you have of your 

 own, as nine out of ten young farmers do, by all means do not hesitate 

 to go into debt, providing your business judgment approves your enter- 

 prise. Ninety per cent of the best business men in the world are in debt 

 more or less all the time. But guard your credit as sacredly as a good 

 woman guards her good name. Good credit is the best capital stock a 

 good business man can have, especially if he be a young man, but credit 

 to be good can never be trifled with. 



Don't run store accounts or unj other kind of accounts. There is a 

 vast deal of business sense in the paradox. Pay as you go if you have to 

 borrow money to do it. Borrow money at the bank or of your friends if 

 necessary, and pay for the accommodation, but don't run accounts. The 

 advantages gained in the long run will pay the interest at the bank twice 

 over. 



Keep some system of accounts. Make it simple. If you don't it will 

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