468 AGRICULTURAL CREDIT.—DAVIDSON. 
the motive of seeking an extra profit on their note issues to 
induce them to take some risk on their loans. The Canadian 
public and the Canadian farmer are, when all is taken into con- 
sideration, the scattered population and the imperfect means of 
communication in particular, better served by the banks than the 
Scottish public and the Scottish farmer. The Scottish banks 
are praised because they assisted the farmer, and it was the 
peculiar feature of the Scottish system that suggested the Euro- 
pean Popular Banks. The Canadian bank is in most respects 
like the Scottish, and has done even more for the farmer. 
Our banking system is, like the Seottish, a system of branch 
banks, and the number of the branches is continuously increas- 
ing. By this means the banks are adapted to local needs, and it 
is their policy to extend their services to the remotest districts. 
In the eighties of last century there was considerable agitation 
which found expression in parliament, for a system of far- 
mers’ banks, and since that time the banks, having apparently 
become conscious of the danger in which the system was if more 
attention was not paid to the agricultural districts, have steadily 
increased the number of their branches. In 1881 there were 287 
branches in Canada; in 1890 this number had increased to 444; 
and in 1900 there Were 641, of which a large number are in 
purely agricultural districts. These branches are distributed all 
over the Dominion, and if the Canadian farmer has not all the 
vanking facilities he ought to have, the reason is not here, what- 
ever may be the case in other countries, that the bank is not at 
his door. 
An attempt is sometimes made to show that our banking 
system confers a special benefit upon the farmer because it is 
calculated to equalize the bank rate all over the country, but 
that, at the best, is a blessing for which the farmer in the west 
has more reason to be thankful than the farmer in the east. 
It is said that our system gathers up the surplus money of 
one district and uses it elsewhere where money is scarce; but 
the New Brunswick farmer who borrows is not likely to regard 
this as an advantage. For if the rate of interest is eyualized all 
