THE QUESTION OF FINANCE 377 



would be eventually repaid. While, therefore, 

 agricultural science and the economic situation 

 of to-day have rendered essential a greater resort 

 to agricultural machinery, if only as a means of 

 reducing the cost of production, agricultural 

 combination has brought the use of even the 

 costliest machines within the reach of the 

 humblest cultivator, placing him in practically 

 the same position, in this regard, as the most 

 prosperous of his neighbours. 



Whether the British farmer acts individually 

 or collectively, the financial question calls, indeed, 

 for serious consideration. It might even be 

 argued that until the financial problems which 

 arise have been satisfactorily disposed of, no 

 great progress at all will be made. In almost 

 every agricultural district in Great Britain 

 farmers or cultivators of the smaller class are 

 practically in the hands of commission-men or 

 brokers who advance money to them before 

 their crops are ready, and afterwards get the 

 produce at substantially less than its legitimate 

 value, because of the financial obligations which 

 the growers incurred towards them at a time 

 when they were pressed for money. Not only 

 does the individual farmer suffer, but the market 

 price of the commodity in question is affected. 

 Illustrations of these practices could especially 



