Rural Credit 279 



a long-time loan for permanent improvement he usually 

 gives a mortgage on the land ; for a short-time loan for 

 current expenses, a note properly secured, a crop lien, or 

 other form of chattel mortgage or personal security. 

 Some of the loan agents deal honorably with the farmers, 

 but the unscrupulous acts of money lenders in foreclosing 

 mortgages so as to obtain the farm below its value and 

 other acts not less honorable have given the unscrupulous 

 individual loan agent or money lender the name of "land 

 shark," and have made this form of rural credit one of 

 the most dangerous and expensive for the average farmer 

 to use. 



The Crop Lien 



Another form of individual credit is the common prac- 

 tice of those who market the products of the farm to ad- 

 vance money to the farmers in the spring to carry on their 

 current seasonal operations, taking as security a mort- 

 gage or lien on the crop. The system is the outcome of 

 the personal relations that exist between the producer 

 and those who handle his crops. The commission mer- 

 chant, jobber, auction company, or warehouseman who 

 furnishes the money, of course, reserves the exclusive 

 right to handle the crop, and he is able to dictate the con- 

 ditions under which the crop is to be sold. In many of 

 the truck-growing and fruit-growing sections of the coun- 

 try this system of credit is the most common method by 

 which capital is provided to the rural classes, and it is the 

 only method by which many of the farmers can secure the 

 necessary capital to conduct their seasonal operations. 

 In the southern states a large proportion of the cotton 



