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land for cereals, and in a properly organised state where 

 facilities exist for the disposal of the crop and the 

 corresponding simple liquidation of debts, they are 

 by no means necessarily bad bargains for the farmer, 

 any more than temporary credits are for the average 

 business man. 



In any case it is not pretended that warrants, will 

 free the farmer from debt, any more than agricultural 

 banks will make the farmer rich. 



Neither is it maintained that warrants alone will 

 suppress all other sources of credit; nor will they place 

 the farmer beyond the control of circumstances, assure 

 for him a harvest in a bad year, or secure him high 

 prices in a year of exceptionally heavy harvest. 



Warrants will, however, when backed by elevators, 

 mitigate the hardships of extremes, no matter what is 

 their source, and will obtain for the farmer innumer- 

 able advantages which their absence denies him to-day. 



These advantages will in time relieve him of much 

 of his present indebtedness which has its cause in the 

 unparalleled losses which he experiences through un- 

 economical working. 



INDEBTEDNESS AND PROSPERITY. 



Indebtedness in itself is not disgraceful ; it is pro- 

 longed indebtedness, the inability to settle up defini- 

 tely at the end of each year, that weighs on the farmer, 

 and such indebtedness is the real curse of the farmer. 

 It is largely due to the onerous conditions which gov- 

 ern rural credit. 



Theoretically, fanners, like every other business 

 man, should be compelled to make a balance every year : 

 if they can settle their debts, they are solvent, other- 

 wise they should be compelled to go into bankruptcy 

 and obliged to liquidate certain of their property or 

 sell sufficient land to relieve their indebtedness . 



Of the insignificant effect of indebtedness, we have 

 an example in a report issued by the Canadian Gov- 

 ernment regarding farmers and farming conditions in 

 the Far West provinces. There, despite the fact that 

 the average size of each farm, is less than 100 hectares, 

 the average indebtedness of the farmer exceeds $3000 

 gold ($7000 m|n.), half of which is due for agricultural 

 machinery, and the rest for mortgage and permanent, 

 advances, and yet this zone has been, and is still, not- 

 ed for the tremendous riches of its farmers and the un- 

 equalled extent of its annual produce. 15,000 farmers 



