WORKING CREDIT FOR FARMERS. 241 



by our farmers, stimulated into intensivism, more paticu- 

 larly that host of small holders whom we hope to see, 

 with the help of borrowed money, turning our country- 

 side into a garden of Eden. It was a different matter in 

 the case of the Scotch banks, which could issue paper 

 money ad lihitnm. And the question of security would be a 

 very difficult one to solve. In the absence of other materials 

 for such — for farmers as a rule have all their money 

 locked up in their farms, not in specific securities which 

 might be pledged — the security given would have to be 

 personal. In industrial and mercantile centres the question 

 of personal security raises no insuperable difficulty. For 

 there is no scarcity of acceptable sureties there, and the 

 status of both borrowers and their bailsmen is readily 

 ascertainable. In the country this is not so, especially 

 with the bank a large bank at a distance. A farmer, large 

 or small, may be deep in debt to his dealer, or else in arrear 

 in his rent, without the banker being able to ascertain it. 

 We have seen men reputed substantial " cut up " in some 

 cases very poorly indeed. And letting alone shyness in 

 pledging themselves, the number of available men and their 

 bailsmen is small. You cannot have Brown backing Smith, 

 and Smith returning the compliment to Brown. Besides, 

 an overdraft is by no means the most desirable form of 

 credit in agricultural business. It provides the same 

 temptation for the small borrower that the presence of a 

 large fund of cash does, as already pointed out, for a credit 

 society. It tempts to careless use. And our agricultural 

 public still needs very much training to banking business. 

 So training it, compelling every borrower to calculate care- 

 fully beforehand whether an outlay will repay itself with 

 interest or not, is one of the main functions of co-operative 

 credit societies, in which they have admirably succeeded. 

 Therefore in the great majority of cases it is a specific loan 

 for a stated object, rather than an overdraft, that will most 

 benefit the borrower. And that same course is certainl}^ 

 desirable, if not downright necessary, in the interest of 

 those who pledge themselves for repayment of the loan. 

 To a not inconsiderable extent, under Co-operation, the 



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