AGRICULTURAL CREDIT. DAVIDSON. 463 



wild west. The banks are ready for any kind of business that 

 is profitable, and does not depart radically from their methods of 

 doing business. Agriculture requires a kind of credit they have 

 not been in the habit of giving. The farmer asks credit for too 

 long a period, and above all, for an uncertain and indefinite 

 period, if it is to be of the fullest advantage to him. Moreover, 

 the banker knows little of the individual farmer, and has but 

 very limited opportunities for watching the business proceedings 

 of a farmer who borrows ; and the ordinary process of everyday 

 business does not bring the farmer debtor under the banker's 

 observation as it does the merchant or manufacturer who bor- 

 rows. When the farmer is ready to market his crop, the bank is 

 more ready to do business, although the business is usually done 

 by middlemen ; but as a producer, as a farmer pure and simple, 

 he has not, and in the nature of things cannot expect to have, 

 the same credit facilities as the merchant. What may be the 

 case when the government does fully what in Australasia and to 

 a much less extent in Canada, governments are beginning to do, 

 viz., to guarantee a market for the farmer's produce, and even to 

 advance the price, or part of the price, is another question. In 

 such cases the banks ought to be willing to treat the farmer on 

 the most favourable terms ; bnt in such a case the farmer is 

 likely, having cash in hand, to be comparatively independent of 

 bank advances. But till that time the farmer has not much to 

 look for from the banks. It is true, as the Hon. Mr. Blake has 

 asserted (Hansard, 1890, p. 4295) that, 



" The moment a farmer can show that he can give the same 

 prospect of a return, with the same advantage, with the same 

 security that other competitors for the stock of available money 

 can give, he will get all the money he wants ; and to the extent 

 he cannot show that he will never get it." 



But it must be remembered that the difficulty lies in the 

 nature of the business, not in the honesty of the borrower. The 

 problem of agricultural credit is not the problem how fco supply 

 money at low rates of interest to those who do not deserve to 

 get it and do not know how to use it. That is likely to remain 



