152 



considerable expense in handling his products, prevent- 

 ing 1 the losses over natural wastage and his own anti- 

 quated methods, all of which entail yearly on him con- 

 siderable sacrifices in time and money and which, above 

 all, are all avoidable. 



The farmer is not alone called upon to make the 

 sacrifices; they are shared by all who profit by his la- 

 bours, equally the public which lives by the consump- 

 tion of agricultural products, by the State which lives 

 by taxing the farmer, or the landowner who lives by the 

 rent he obtains through the farmer. The latter, the 

 land owner, suffers considerably by the wastefulness of 

 the present methods. 



If he is paid in part by the product -jf the land, 

 he, the land ownere, gets less grain to began with, of 

 poor quality, because he receives it dirty, and of reduc- 

 ed value when he comes to sell his share of the wheat. 

 He receives a diminished rent from his property, and, 

 owing to the small rent he receives, his property has 

 less value when he comes to sell his land. 



In the riches and prosperity of the farmer lie that 

 of the whole country; and what affects him seriously 

 cannot long remain without seriously affecting every- 

 body. 



We have land in abundance to exploit, and appa- 

 rently money in abundance to undertake the work with ; 

 there is a demand for our products, yet despite all these 

 advantages, we see the land unexploited and our money 

 unused. If the amount of money demanded is a crite- 

 rion of the ebb and flow of our energy then the fact 

 that discounts are steadily falling while deposits are 

 steadily mounting indicates that we have come to the 

 end of our tether; i.e., that our energy is wasted on 

 the land. 



(Discounts in 1918 returned at a total of approx- 

 imately $ 1800 millions; about the same as during 1914 

 and before the war: total figures are less if we take 

 into account that there are practically no discounts in 

 gold any more; gold discounts in 1914 reached $ 28 mil- 

 lions, during 1918 barely 6 millions) . 



Certainly never before has the progress of the 

 year's sowings been followed so keenly, nor the disabil- 

 ities of the farmer more appreciated, judging by the 

 lengthy articles in the press all over the country. 



It is of some consolation to see that, beside the 

 Government, there are plenty of people anxious to help 

 towards solving some of the problems which annually 

 afflict agriculture or rather those who dedicate them- 



