No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL LEGISLATION. 289 



Section 17. This act shall take effect upon its passage, except that 

 the provisions of sections one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 

 ten, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen shall not be operative until the first day 

 of July, in the 3'ear nineteen hundred and sixteen. [Approved May 17, 

 1915. 



PART II. — LEGISLATION OF GENERAL AGRICULTURAL 



INTEREST. 



FARMLAND BANKS. 



General Acts, Chapter 231. 

 An Act to authorize the incorpor-^tion of farmland banks. 

 Be it enacted, etc., as follows: 



GENER.\L PROVISIONS. 



Section 1. In this act the words "farmland bank" shall mean a cor- 

 poration formed in accordance with the provisions of tliis act for the pur- 

 pose of promoting rural mortgage credit in the commonwealth; the word 

 "bank", unless otherwise designated, shall mean a farmland bank; the 

 words "land reserve fund" shall mean the capital stock of a farmland bank; 

 the words "land reserve certificate" shall mean a certificate of shares of 

 stock in a farmland bank; the word "mortgage" shall mean a mortgage 

 upon farm land of which a farmland bank is the mortgagee; the word 

 "bond" shall mean a bond issued bj'' a farmland bank and secured by 

 mortgages upon farm lands; the word "farm" shall mean any tract of 

 land of not less than two acres, cultivated or managed wholly or princi- 

 pally for the purpose of obtaining a revenue from the sale of farm, dairy, 

 or poultry products; the words "farm land" shall mean any land, im- 

 proved or unimproved, having a present or potential value for agricultural 

 purposes and comprising the whole or a part of a farm in this common- 

 wealth; the word "board" shall mean the board of bank incorporation 

 authorized by section four of chapter two hundred and four of the acts of 

 the year nineteen himdred and six; and the word "commissioner" shall 

 mean the bank commissioner of the commonwealth. 



This act may be cited as The Farmland Bank Law. 



incorporation. 



Section 2. Ten or more persons resident in this commonwealth, who 

 have associated themselves by an agreement in writing with the intention 

 of forming a farmland bank for the purpose of promoting rural mortgage 

 credit, may, with the consent of the board of bank incorporation, become 

 a corporation upon complying with all of the provisions of this act. The 

 board is hereby authorized to grant such consent when it is satisfied that 

 the proposed field of operation is favorable to the success of a farmland 



