460 FARM FINANCE 



" You cannot borrow money to pay your debts, or to 

 invest so the return will be uncertain or in any but provi- 

 dent ventures. Not all of you will need money, but 

 there is none of you who may not require funds to buy 

 seeds or fertilizer or machinery. It is clearly a matter of 

 wisdom for you to protect yourself by having open to you 

 some source of credit. This you may have if you all 

 stand together in brotherhood. You must each watch to 

 see that the bank's money is properly spent, and give serv- 

 ice wisely, willingly, and unselfishly." 



From this lengthy quotation, taken from a recent article 

 by John L. Matthews, we shall not be surprised to learn 

 that the Raiffeisen idea of cooperative credit spread widely 

 over Germany. Indeed, the Raiffeisen banking system 

 comprises about 15,000 local banks, having a membership 

 of over 2,000,000. The aggregate yearly business of these 

 banks is nearly $ 1,500,000,000.! 



331. Land Banks in America. Fortunately, in America 

 we do not have to work in the dark. In attempting to 

 extend credit facilities to rural communities we have the 

 light of foreign experience to guide us. It is not neces- 

 sary, however, to remind the average American that Ger- 

 many is not America and that German conditions are not 

 exactly similar to American conditions. 2 



Nevertheless many of the principles worked out and so 



1 Sir Horace Plunkett, the famous Irish rural economist, states that the 

 Raiffeisen idea has done as much for Germany as has the invention of the 

 steam engine. 



2 Farms in Germany average 10 to 15 acres apiece and throughout Europe 

 farmers live mostly in small villages. The average farm in the United States 

 is more than 100 acres. In the west the federal homestead act requiring the 

 domiciling of the farmer on his farm and regulating the size of the farm 

 makes conditions there especially different from those abroad. Cooperation in 

 America is naturally more difficult. Then, too, we do not have a real peasantry 

 here. Our farmers produce yearly from $8,000,000,000 to 10,000,000,000, and 

 are virtually independent. See Appendix A, Chart VIII, page 470. 



