128 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



banks is the most important and the primary step to be taken 

 in order to improve our agricultural-credit conditions. It 

 naturally and necessarily precedes the development of personal 

 credit. This history of European systems has shown that the 

 land-mortgage banks preceded the personal-credit banks. In 

 this country it is urgently necessary to create a land-mortgage 

 security 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 semiannual instalments, and 

 which will enable the land-owning farmer to use most ad- 

 vantageously his best banking asset, land, as the basis of credit. 



In this part of the report the problems of mortgage credit 

 will be first considered, since definite recommendations have 

 already been carefully prepared suggesting important national 

 legislation. The problems of personal credit will follow in a 

 separate section of the report to be submitted at an early date. 



In discussing the bearing of the experience of the European 

 countries upon this question, special reference may be made to 

 Germany as an illustration, since both systems of credit have 

 attained very great efficiency in that Empire and remarkable 

 results to the farmer have been secured, doubtless to a large 

 extent as a result of the growth of agricultural credit. If 

 space permitted, this comparison could be extended to other 

 countries which were visited by the commission to good ad- 

 vantage, but probably additional and extended comparisons 

 would make this report too voluminous. 



In considering the conditions in Germany, as applying to 

 the conditions in the United States, the essential points of 

 difference between the two countries should always be borne in 

 mind. 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 States. In in- 

 tensive farming the Germans are far ahead of our own farm- 

 ing population, and the average production in Germany has 

 increased greatly, while our average yield per acre has increased 

 but slowly. In Germany the population in a given district is 

 largely homogeneous, and the individual is, so to speak, attached 

 to the soil, the same farms continuing in the same families for 

 generations. In this country such a condition is seldom found. 



