CO-OPERATION AND CREDIT 201 



absence of adequate capital in the shape of 

 ready money available for special and tempor- 

 ary necessities. The writer, in the course of 

 a meeting held to explain the Small Holdings 

 Act, touched upon the question of the capital 

 required by an applicant, and was met by a cry 

 from several labourers present : " Oh, that's 

 all right, sir, many of us have got quite as 

 much capital as the farmers." Several of the 

 farm hands in this parish had managed by 

 almost phenomenal thrift to save from 50 

 to 100 ; and they were perfectly right in 

 suggesting that few farmers had, proportion- 

 ately to their responsibilities, an equal amount 

 of ready cash. Most County Councils demand 

 that a Small Holdings applicant shall possess 

 5 per acre of the land required. How many 

 farmers taking up a farm of 200 acres could 

 lay their hands on 1000 ? 



It is strange that while capital is freely 

 forthcoming for other branches of industry, 

 our greatest national industry of agriculture 

 has no adequate credit at its command. If 

 a British farmer requires a loan for the special 

 needs or development of his farm he is too 

 frequently driven, in the absence of mortgage 

 possibilities, to the exorbitant methods of the 

 private money-lender or the almost equally 

 unsatisfactory help of the persons who pur- 



