AGRICULTURAL CREDIT BANKS III 



The necessary buildings are erected by the joint labour 

 of the dessa people. The padi which has not been loaned 

 is sold annually, and out of the proceeds the expenses of 

 administration and the cost of repairs to the buildings 

 are defrayed, the balance being paid into a reserve fund. 

 The reserve funds of the loemboengs dessa are invested 

 in current account at the local people's bank (divisional 

 bank). The final result, therefore, is that the native 

 community possesses a building free from debt, with a 

 stock of padi as well as a reserve fund in cash. Loans 

 are principally given to farmers at the time when field 

 work is carried on. The management of the loemboeng 

 is in the hands of a committee, which usually consists of 

 three farmers and the chief of the village, who receive a 

 share of the profits. The book-keeping is in charge of a 

 competent person, who is in the service of, and paid by, 

 a group or circle of neighbouring villages, and who 

 visits the various loemboengs in turn according to a fixed 

 table (once a week). 



The dessa loemboeng is generally found in those 

 villages where the cultivation of padi is the principal 

 means of subsistence. It prevents the padi crop passing 

 too quickly out of the hands of the farmers into those of 

 the purchasers, and thereby obviates a rapid fall in price 

 during and shortly after the gathering of the crop, and a 

 strong rise a few months later when the padi is in the 

 buyers' hands. The price of the padi is, therefore, more 

 uniform during the year, a circumstance which has a 

 favourable influence on the feeding of the people and on 

 their wages. The loemboeng further enables the farmer, 

 without having to suffer want, to give better and more 

 timely attention to the tilling of the soil. 



Where the land is owned by a large number of small 

 proprietors there is less justification for the existence of 

 the loemboeng. This is generally true also of those 

 places where the local supply of padi is insufficient to 

 provide the necessary food, necessitating its being im- 

 ported, and where, therefore, the population has to adopt 

 other means of support (commercial crops, industries, 

 fisheries, etc.). The constant improvement in the means 

 of intercourse, both inland and with foreign countries, 



