336 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



and is ready to assist him with extra credit for the purpose. 

 Such credit is possible because there is new value to pledge. 

 There are settlers who have begun settUng, lodging only 

 in a disused railway car while the house was slowly building. 

 But the holding must be compact, drained, well accessible 

 by a good road, with good water and all else, and a full 

 harvest stored in the barn, to help the newcomer over the 

 first year. Of late the State has provided additional 

 adjuncts, such as a little orchard with selected fruit trees 

 in it. It is these extra luxuries which have led it to put 

 its hand in its pocket and spend about £25, not to be recov- 

 ered, on each holding. Previously, under good management 

 incomings and outgoings balanced. In certain cases now, 

 more particularly if the settlement takes place in a Polish 

 district, even a larger sum is spent, not to be recovered. 



The " Commission " looking after the settlers' interest 

 means that the vendor not infrequently has to incur some 

 additional expense, or else disgorge some of the promised 

 money. In 1894 I found, while visiting one of these settle- 

 ments in company with President Metz, that the vendor 

 had been made to give up about £1,000 of the sum that the 

 purchasers had already agreed to pay — subject of course 

 to the " Commission's " approval. For all that landowners 

 willing to sell are very glad to avail themselves of the 

 services of the " Commission," taking the price in guaranteed 

 land bonds running for a long time — optionally for 56 ^'^ 

 and 60 1 years — according to the rate of interest agreed 

 upon, up to three- fourths of the value of the property. 

 In respect of the remaining fourth vendors are at liberty 

 to arrange with the purchasers, who according to the govern- 

 ing idea ought to pay it down in cash. Often enough, 

 however, they pay only part of the sum, the vendor debiting 

 them with the balance. Or else the vendor will find private 

 capitalists to take up the amount as a second mortgage. 

 Where there are co-operative credit banks the difficulty 

 about the last fourth is — in the case of settlers with a good 

 character — readily got over by means of personal credit. 

 That has been done on a comparatively large scale, without 

 difliculty and with excellent results, in Prussian Poland, 



