34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



Mr. Ford. I would like to be informed as to what a man 

 must do, and how it must be done, to avail himself of this 

 money? 



Mv. Robinson. The Federal Farm Loan Act is quite 

 specific on the subject. We cannot deal with borrowers di- 

 rectly. We can only deal with them through an organization 

 of borrowers as intermediary. Now, the first thing to do 

 is to get your organization; get at least ten farmers together 

 and organize them — form them into a corporation. To do it 

 in accordance with the most technical provisions of the Federal 

 Farm Loan Act, let me tell you, is no joke. It has taken a 

 great deal of time and has cost us a lot of money to work 

 out the method. If it had not been for these requisites of 

 having an association to deal with we could have started lend- 

 ing money to farmers the first day we organized. Now, first 

 organize your association. Then let the association — which 

 has a loan committee of three members — go and examine 

 every farm. Then let the board of directors of the association 

 approve every one of those loans; and then you are not 

 through. You send your applications — each one of the appli- 

 cations — with the articles of incorporation to the Land Bank. 

 The Land Bank must then send its Land Bank appraiser — 

 who is an official of the United States — who inspects the 

 farms, and when he comes back the board of directors of the 

 Land Bank take action, and if they approve all those loans, 

 and find that the papers are all correct, they are forwarded, — 

 the papers are forwarded to Washington to the Federal Farm 

 Loan Board for approval and a charter, and we cannot close 

 any loans until the charter is granted. Now, of course, it 

 looks quite formidable, but I will tell you something. We 

 have cut down many of the short corners and a lot of red 

 tape and we have speeded up our work, and I think that we 

 have reduced the making of a loan within the last three 

 months by half. I think we can do better than that, but 

 it takes a little while to do it. Does that answer your ques- 

 tion, Mr. Ford? 



Mr. Ford. Yes. 



Mr. Newkirk. I think there was one thing you omitted, 

 and that was, after the association was formed, if another 



