AGRICUI^TURAI, CREDIT AND CO-OPERATION IN EUROPE 85 



Wales. — Development Societies in Agricultural Organization. Co-op- 

 eration and Business Organization in Agriculture. University College of 

 Wales and Agricultural Co-operation. 



Scotland. — Agricultural Organization in vScotland. Rural Credit in 

 Scotland. 



Ireland. — Suggested vSolution of the Rural Problem. Difficulties in 

 Organizing Farmers. Rural Credit in Ireland. Organization of Agricul- 

 tural Education in Ireland. Irish Agricultural Organization Society. 



§ 4. The united states commission's report on land mortgage credit. 



Part I of the Report of the United States Commission contains 

 a discussion of land-mortgage credit with special reference to conditions 

 in Germany, followed by a detailed statement of the considerations which 

 have led the Commission to suggest certain legislation for the United States 

 and by a draft Bill for the establishment of land-mortgage banks. 



As a preliminary to the discussion of land- mortgage credit, the Commis- 

 sion first defines it as " credit to meet the capital requirements of the 

 farmer ", and distinguishes between such credit and short term or per- 

 sonal credit which serves " to meet the current or armually recurring needs 

 of the farmer ". The capital requirements of the farmer are then de- 

 fined as " his need for large sums of money to be used in aiding to pay 

 the purchase price of his farm, in improving the farm or in equipping it so 

 as to bring his operations to the highest stage of efficiency", and the an- 

 nually recurring needs of the farmer as " the money needed by him to 

 finance his operations during the time that the crops are being produced ". 



In the opinion of the Commission the development of a system of mort- 

 gage banks, dealing principally (if not exclasively) in long term loans to 

 meet the farmer's capital requirements, must necessarily precede the est- 

 ablishment of short term or personal credit banks. " In this country ", 

 says the Report, "it is urgently necessary to create a land-mortgage sec- 

 urity which will be entirely liquid by reason of having a ready market, 

 which will run for a long time, which can be paid off in small annual or 

 semi-annual instalments,, and which will enable the land-owing farmer to 

 use most advantageously his best banking asset, land, as the basis of 

 credit ". 



The Report next calls attention to the danger of assuming that because 

 a system has proved successful in one country it will, therefore, prove suc- 

 cessful in another country where conditions may be widely different ; and 

 in this connection draws a contrast between agricultural conditions in 

 Germany and in the United States, as follows : 



" In size the German Empire is about equal to the area of the State 

 of Texas after cutting off from Texas an area as large as the State of 

 Alabama. In population the German Empire contains about 68,000,000 

 people, or more than two-thirds of the population of the whole United Sta- 



