AGRICULTURAL CREDIT.—DAVIDSON. 485 
If we trace the farmer’s activity from start to finish, we can 
see at a glance what is being done: 
I. Agricultural education for adults at present—for the young 
in the immediate future; this includes lectures by 
experts, continuous experimentation, ete. 
i. Assistance in certain kinds of production—creameries and 
cheese factories, ete. 
ui. For improvements—-practically nothing. The Canadian 
governments do not lend on mortgage, nor is it desirable 
that they should. But something might readily be 
done to cheapen law costs and to facilitate the transfer 
of lands ; perhaps, also, to encourage local agricultural 
societies to form themselves into local co-operative 
mortgage banks, borrowing on mortgage bonds to lend 
on mortgage. 
Iv. For the provision of credit to carry on the business of 
farming, the government does nothing and can do 
nothing, though here, again, it might encourage the 
agricultural societies to greater practical usefulness as 
co-operative supply associations. 
v. Markets. This has been assumed by the government in so 
far as export is concerned ; and since the government 
advances the price, it may thus assist the farmer more 
than by providing cheaper credit. With a practical 
government guarantee of a market, indeed, the banks 
might safely advance to the farmer almost as fully as 
they do to the lumber operator and the manufacturer ; 
and if this were to prove the case, the demand for 
cheaper money for the farmer would no longer be heard. 
