CHEAP AGRICULTURAL CREDIT. 121 



where fertilizing and tillage become more ex- 

 pensive for regenerating the soil, the farmer 

 must have capital. 



Almost all countries recognize this by pro- 

 viding cheap credit for the man on the soil, from 

 the great Powers of the European continent to 

 the little communities of the Seychelles and the 

 Malay States. Great Britain has established in 

 Ireland the cheapest of cheap agricultural credit ; 

 in England and Scotland, where in a special 

 degree land can suffer from " mean " farming, 

 and calls for a great capital expenditure, the 

 State has ignored almost completely the help 

 of cheap credit in settling and keeping the 

 people on the land. Germany has had its 

 Landschaften Bank since 1770 ; the CrSdit 

 Fonder system of France is more than half a 

 century old. The Dominions and colonies of 

 the British Empire have established, almost 

 without exception, systems of helping the man 

 on the land with cheap money, and have proved 

 that CrSdit Fonder systems can confer the 

 greatest of benefits without any cost to the State 

 at all. Great Britain for herself has yet to learn 

 the value to the man on the land of help of 



