Fortunes for Farmers 



and at last, he takes to drink as a climax. This 

 is so usual that it is nearly always the more 

 distant farmers who deceive the merchant. 



Our merchant, therefore, feeling fairly safe, 

 assists the small holders with credit, and takes 

 his profit as a trading moneylender. But the 

 local banks are remiss, for they lose legitimate 

 business, and if their directors were wiser they 

 would look at the Continent where land banks 

 do an enormous trade, to their own benefit and 

 that of agriculture. There are schemes afoot 

 for the foundation of such institutions in England. 

 The Government, it is believed, are considering 

 the matter, but such schemes would need careful 

 handling unless they were to be wrecked. They 

 must be managed as the rural banks were run 

 half-a-century ago, when local managers had a 

 free hand, studied their clients, and knew how 

 far to trust them. Owing to the growth of large 

 banking concerns and their gradual absorption 

 of the old-fashioned local ones, these latter 

 institutions are almost extinct, and now we find 

 huge concerns with branches everywhere, whose 

 managers are without power, so that character 

 no longer obtains credit. There are a few of the 

 old standards left but they are rare. 



The greatest risk that a farmer presents to a 

 merchant or whoever may be his creditor con- 



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