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 fanner. 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 Scottish, 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 64; 1, 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 

 banking 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 blessino- for which the farmer in the west 



* ' o 



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 equalized all 



