48 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



1912, there was published an article on " Banks for the 

 Farmer," by Mr. Myron T. Herrick, the American Ambas- 

 sador to France, preceded by an editorial Note stating that 

 Mr. Herrick " has been making a special study on behalf of 

 the United States Government of the farm financing systems 

 of Europe with the object, we understand, of assisting in the 

 preparation of legislation for the introduction of similar 

 systems " in the United States. It is further mentioned in 

 the Note that Mr. Edwin Chamberlain, of the American 

 Bankers' Association, was returning from Paris in order to 

 address the Savings Bank Section of that Association at 

 Detroit, on September I2th, on " European Land and Rural 

 Credit Facilities." 



Mr. Herrick says in his article : 



The course of the industrial development of the United States 

 thus far has been such as to stimulate the growth of urban 

 population, partially at the expense of the rural districts, until 

 the overcrowding in our cities has become a matter of serious 

 concern. The pressure of population in the cities has materially 

 lowered the standard of living of large numbers of people whose 

 ability to participate intelligently in the industrial and political 

 affairs of the community is thus lessened. On the other hand 

 rural life provides the proper environment for the development 

 of a high order of manhood and womanhood. The tendency of 

 farm life is to produce a virile citizenship a class of men and 

 women who are actively responsive to their civic duties. It is, 

 therefore, of the greatest possible importance to the social, 

 political and economic welfare of the country that everything 

 possible be done to promote its agricultural interests. 



Heretofore, he proceeds, the conditions of the United 

 States have been so favourable to farming that agriculture 

 has been regarded as an industry needing little consideration, 

 the necessity for the wise development and conservation of 

 agricultural resource being overlooked in the eagerness to 

 attain commercial and industrial supremacy. The avail- 

 ability of virgin fertile land made the farmers careless in 

 their methods ; but the time has come when there must be 

 adopted methods of cultivation that will yield the greatest 

 amount consistent with economical production. Mr. 

 Herrick gives figures from the United States census of 1910 



