436 RURAL MICHIGAN 



Michigan, even with these facilities available, have a 

 long future before them. 



It is recognized that the agricultural progress of 

 Michigan, particularly in the undeveloped sections, 

 is closely connected with adequate financial assist- 

 ance. Outside the regular channels of banking, there 

 is no agency specifically created for the purpose of 

 affording financial aid to farmers or to rural develop- 

 ment. There are at the present time no colonization 

 companies, such as obtain in Wisconsin, for extend- 

 ing financial assistance to settlers. A purpose to 

 establish such enterprises has from time to time 

 been expressed, but as yet without definite results. 

 Up to March, 1920, the Federal Land Bank of St. 

 Paul, which embraces in its operations the State 

 of Michigan, had placed loans in this State aggre- 

 gating $4,150,500, of which $1,366,600 was allocated 

 to the Upper Peninsula. On December 31, 1920, 

 there had been chartered in Michigan 121 farm loan 

 associations, 3,440 loans had been made, involving 

 the total loans of $6,475,000. This gave an average 

 loan of $1,882.^ This was a year marked by a ces- 

 sation of business on the part of the Federal Farm 

 Loan Board, caused by the pendency in the Supreme 

 Court of the United States of a suit involving the 

 constitutionality of the Federal Farm Loan Law and 

 the consequent discontinuance of the operations of 

 the Federal Farm Loan Board. With the final de- 

 cision of the court favorable to the act, it may be 

 expected that the benefits of the law will manifest 



»Rept. of Federal Farm Loan Bd., Feb. 9, 1921, 5. 



