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, etc. 



II. Assistance in certain kinds of production creameries and 



cheese factories, etc. 



III. 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 conceined ; 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. 



