140 



to liberate him from his most importunate creditors, and 

 give him time to dispose of his year's labours to his best 

 advantage, could achieve more than by all the rest of 

 its multitudinous duties put together. 



What these harvesting loans have cost the farmer 

 in the past is beyond calculation and since, according 

 to the statements of the Government, they offer cause 

 for constant preoccupation to the authorities, by allow- 

 ing their perpetuation the Government is sharing in tfie 

 responsibility for much of our rural distress. 



WHAT HARVESTING LOANS COST 

 THE FARMER. 



S 



The practical side of the question is not in the res- 

 ponsibility for the ruinous system of the present loans, 

 nor in a change apparently to be effected by the crea- 

 tion of a bank, and for a long time to come still less in 

 an alteration of the present system of advances, which 

 at least meets the needs of the farmer, and which as we 

 see cannot be disturbed without giving rise to consider- 

 ably greater hardships to the farmer, but rather in mo- 

 difying the conditions under which repayment is ef- 

 fected by the farmer. 



To the present facilities of credit, especially har- 

 vesting advances, greater facilities for repayment 

 should certainly be added. It is to this side of the ques- 

 tion that most attention must be paid. The farmer 

 should get full value for his products so that he can 

 pay back his credits. If he is to have money assured 

 him then why should he not get the means assured for 

 paying it back? 



The way to assure his paying loans back is to see 

 that he does not lose a cent more than necessary over 

 his crops, and the way for him not to lose a cent of his 

 crop profits is for him to be able to sell it at its full 

 value . 



If his credit is cheap he can sell cheap, but if his 

 credit is dear, then it is certainly ruinous speculation 

 to sell cheap, and this is what the farmers have been 

 doing for years. 



The security offered by the average farmer for 

 the most important credit he asks annually a the credit 

 in which both he and his creditors have the primary 

 interest, (that for the harvesting), is his standing crop 

 almost exclusively. His personal credit can hardly be 

 said to count, although he has always to sign bills for- 

 the money. 



