AGRICULTURAL CREDIT..—DAVIDSON. 4.59 
what he needs to use. He does not fashion his implements, 
“knock together ” his furniture, weave his own cloth. These 
things he buys, and is the better for buying. Nor does he look 
to consume in his own household most of that which his farm 
produces. He has become a member of another kind of society. 
He is a business man perforce, and produces for a market ; and 
access to markets on the most profitable terms is as vital to him 
as to any other producer. 
When it began to be perceived a quarter of a century ago 
that farming had become a business, many people, both practical 
men and theorists, jumped to the conclusion that the tendency 
towards production on a large scale would show itself in agri- 
culture. But time has shown that production on a large scale is 
not so profitable in agriculture as in manufacturing, and many 
of the large farms which were started have been broken up. It 
was Claimed for the large farmer, that he would have the very 
great advantage of being able to command the large capital 
which a business which produces for a distant market, as farm- 
ing had become, required. Farming under the regime of world 
competition could be profitable to those only who could obtain 
credit and take advantage of the fluctuations of the market. 
This, the small farmer could not do, because he had little capital 
and less credit. The advantage of the large farmer has not been 
so great; but the disadvantages of the small farmer have not 
been less than is thus stated. And the world over, on the con- 
tinent of Europe, in the Old Country, in the United States and 
in Canada, and in New Zealand and Australia, there is the same 
ery and demand from the farmer, that he is handicapped because 
of the high rates of interest he has to pay to obtain the capital 
and the credit his business requires. His occupation has become, 
and is daily more and more becoming, a business that depends 
on markets and marketing. The farmer bas to measure himself 
by the business standard, and his complaint is that he is not 
provided with the necessary requisites for so conducting his 
business as a business. Various devices and proposals have been 
put forward to assist the farmer on easier terms to the two 
