AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



Section VI. The need of a system for obtain- 

 ing credit on land, the District Credit Associations 

 in Germany. The farmers of the United States 

 are in need of a good credit system. Not only is 

 it important that the young farmers who wish to 

 go in debt for land should be able to borrow money 

 at a low rate of interest; but it is equally impor- 

 tant that the tenant farmers should be able to 

 invest their savings in a profitable manner, until 

 they have accumulated sufficient capital to enable 

 them to invest in land. It is well known that the 

 country bankers are not willing to pay mo're than 

 four per cent, for the savings which the farmers 

 may deposit with them ; and that these same bank- 

 ers will not lend money to the same men, on the 

 best of security, the farm mortgage, for less 

 than six per cent, with the interest paid semi- 

 annually in advance. It is also true that the 

 length of time for which the farmers wish to bor- 

 row money is usually longer than that for which 

 the bankers wish to put their money out ; in fact, 

 the lending of money on mortgages is not the 

 class of investment which seems most congenial to 

 the ordinary banker. 



The banks are of far less importance in the mak- 

 ing of loans to farmers for the purpose of buying 

 land, in most communities, than are the well-to- 

 do and the retired farmers of the neighborhood. 

 Nearly every community has at least one such 

 man in it. While there are many exceptions, 



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