DEFICIENCIES IN FARM FINANCE 63 



These difficulties were due to the credit re- 

 strictions and limitations of the past 18 months 

 and in part to the fact that the banking machin- 

 ery of the country is not adapted to the farmers' 

 requirements. 



The Commission pointed out that the Federal 

 Reserve System included about 8,210 national 

 banks and only 1,630 of the approximately 20,- 

 000 state banks. The national and state banks 

 are the principal agencies furnishing short-time 

 credit to farmers and these, together with the 

 farm loan system and the private farm mort- 

 gage companies, furnish the bulk of long time 

 credit. Such short time credits as were avail- 

 able to farmers were largely limited to periods 

 of six months or less owing to the fact that 

 paper of longer maturity than six months for 

 agricultural purposes is not eligible for redis- 

 count with the Federal Reserve Bank. The 

 Commission recommended that through adapt- 

 ing existing banking agencies a credit of 

 sufficient maturity to make payment possible 

 out of the proceeds of the farm should be pro- 

 vided. This means a credit running from six 

 months to three years, depending upon the char- 

 acter of the crop or live stock to be marketed. 

 In the case of crops, six months is often suf- 



