300 FARM MANAGEMENT 



bred stock to pay. Railroads issue bonds to run many 

 years, but the farmer in America has no means of obtaining 

 ten- and twenty-year loans. The rate of interest on 

 mortgages in some regions is much higher than it would 

 be if some sort of cooperative credit associations were 

 formed. An even more serious consideration is the 

 problem of securing credit for current expenses while the 

 crop is being grown. There is really no system of securing 

 such credit for American farmers, except in some of the 

 highly prosperous regions. 



The following discussion by H. C. Price in the Rural 

 New Yorker of Oct. 19, 1912, presents some important 

 phases of the question. 



THE BANKERS AND THE FARMERS 



The general awakening of interest in the necessity of 

 a better system of credit for American agriculture has 

 started the bankers studying the farmers' business, and 

 it behooves the farmers in turn to study the bankers' 

 business, and especially their interest in the establishment 

 of agricultural credit institutions. 



The necessity of a more readily available capital for 

 carrying on the farmers' business is granted by every one 

 who has given the least attention to the matter. But how 

 this is to be done is the point at which the interests of 

 bankers and farmers are likely to conflict. If there is 

 money to loan and securities to sell, the banker naturally 

 wants the business, and he wants the business in such 

 shape that it will make him a good profit. The bankers' 

 associations have taken the matter of agricultural credits 

 up seriously, and have investigated the European systems ; 

 their periodicals are filled with articles on the subject. 



