139 



v'o-operative institutions am be grafted into rural 

 banks is possible, but only when said banks have been 

 firmly established, which requires, in the aiost optimis- 

 tic ol calculations, <mite a decade at least. 



WARRANT DISCOUNT BANKS. 



The only possible sphere of usefulness of an 

 Airricola Bank is in connection with warrants, and ad- 

 vances on warrants, that is in the sense of a commercial - 

 rural bank, or a special agricultural branch of the Bank 

 of the 4< Nacion" dedicated to facilitating loans on crops 

 pending the sale of the crop. Nevertheless, it the busi- 

 ness is a profitable one, as it must be if it is worth while 

 undertaking, there is every reason to suppose that all 

 the banks would want to participate. 



As a sort of Rural "Caja de Conversion", with 

 wheat instead of gold, it has unlimited field for action; 

 it might be confided the financial part of an adequate 

 elevator system, if ever the State decided for State ele- 

 vators; in connection with financial houses it could at- 

 tain a sphere of activity which at present seems beyond 

 a purely agricultural bank; a bank "Agrieola" in con- 

 nection with elevators and warrants alone of all the 

 suggestions appears the most practical and possible of 

 permanent success. 



It would have the advantage of entering a sphere 

 of action at present unoccupied by any other institu- 

 tion, and with a definite object before it; before this is 

 accomplished, however, a considerable revising of the 

 original charter will have to take place. 



The momentary difficulties of the present situa- 

 tion affords an immediate opportunity for shaking off 

 the octopus of extortionate rural credit, and were the di- 

 rection of such an institution placed in the hands of 

 men comprehending the real necessities of the farmer, 

 it could achieve now what the past has denied it, that is 

 to say, a prosperous and useful sphere of activity in 

 rural life. 



As a leading source for harvesting loiins, against 

 commercial enterprise it cannot hope to compete, but as 

 a source for enabling the farmer to return such loans, at 

 the earliest possible moment, and so reduce their cost, 

 and so each successive year have less need of submitting 

 to onerous conditions, such a bank by discounting his 

 warrants, by advancing on his products sufficient 



