120 



held justifiable as a primary resource in facilitating' the 

 acquisition of the land, otherwise as a last resource 



Modern tendency is all in favour of short time 

 loans on easy realisable securities and experience is 

 against making the land a means of securing money/ 

 Tt is hard to explain in these modern times why more 

 than ordinary security should be required of the land 

 owner, except as a recompense for letting him have 

 money at exceptionally low rates of interest, which is 

 decidedly not the case in this country. 



The use of the land as ;i means of credit has been 

 found to tend to diminish production, and since the na- 

 tural and proper use of land is the production of ma- 

 terials of food and clothing, anything that injures pro- 

 duction should be obviated. All over the world debt is 

 the trouble of all farmers. By making this indebtedness 

 less permanent we greatly reduce its hardship. 



PREXDA AGRARIA. 



In regard to the second means mentioned of credit, 

 that of raising money on his farm implements, the pass- 

 ing into law of the Prenda Agraria has facilitated the 

 task and fixed the ways of lawfully carrying the con- 

 tracts out. 



The incorporation of a system of loans in cash, 

 specially guaranteed by movables, such as animals, ma- 

 chinery, implements, produce, and other rural values, 

 has proved highly beneficial, and has given sufficient 

 results during the short time for which figures are 

 available to prove the utility of the proceeding. That 

 the Prenda Ajrraria has not developed vastly, nor ac- 

 quired the amplitude expected, is to be attributed to 

 the relative smallness of the total value of the securities; 

 more than to the absence of means for properly utilis- 

 ing the law to the fullest extent. 



That it has facilitated loans is undeniable, but that 

 it is necessarily limited in sphere of action is evident 

 when the poverty of our farmers is taken into account, 

 precisely in those goods which are easiest accepted as 

 securities under the Prenda Agraria. 



Tn the U.S.A.. for example, the value of agricul- 

 tural implements owned by the farmers is calculated 

 to-day at approximately $2000 millions gold and in this 

 figure the value attributed to the farm animals for lab- 

 our purposes is not included. 



Although there are no available figures regarding 

 the total value of agricultural implements here, a rough 



