Thirtieth 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



VOL. XXXI 



CHICAGO, DECEMBER, 1915. 



No. 2 



THE IRRIGATION AGE 



With which is Merged 



The National Land and Irrigation Journal 

 MODERN IRRIGATION THE DRAINAGE JOURNAL 



THE IRRIGATION ERA MID-WEST 



ARID AMERICA THE PARK HERALD 



THE WATER USERS' BULLETIN THE IRRIGATOR 



D. H. ANDERSON 



PUBLISHER, 



Published Monthly at 30 No. Dearborn Street, 

 CHICAGO 



Entered as second-class matter October S, 1897, at the Postoffice 

 at Chicago, 111., under Act of March t, 1878. 



D. H. ANDERSON, Editor 



ANNOUNCEMENT. 



The "Primer of Hydraulics" is now ready; Price $2.00. 

 If ordered in connection with subscription $2.50. 



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Official organ Federation of Tree Growing Clubs of 

 America. D. H. Anderson, Secretary. 



The Executive Committee of the National Federation 

 of Water Users' Associations has taken action whereby 

 THE IRRIGATION AGE is created the official organ of this 

 vast organization, representing 1,000,000 persons on the 

 government irrigation projects. 



Interesting to Advertisers 



It may interest advertisers to know that The Irrigation Age 

 is the only publication in the world having an actual paid in 

 advance circulation among individual irrigators and large 

 irrigation corporations. It is read regularly by all inter- 

 ested in this subject and has readers in all parts of the 

 world. The Irrigation Age is 30 years old and is the 

 pioneer publication of its class in the world. 



Figures that will throw light on the 

 Interest charges paid by farmers for personal 



and or collateral security in various parts 



Rural of the United States were given out 



Credits by Carl W. Thompson, specialist in 



rural organization, United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, in his address before the 

 third national conference on marketing and farm 

 credits, in session at the Hotel Sherman, Chicago, 

 November 29 to December 2. 



Prof. Thompson also pointed out the factors 

 that cause variations in these charges. He showed 

 the relations of existing banks of this class of farm 

 loans and considered certain matters with regard 

 to this class of rural securities. 



The average total cost, says Prof. Thompson, 

 including interest and extra charges, varies from 

 6 l / 2 per cent in New England to between 10 and 20 

 per cent in the Southern or Rocky Mountain states, 

 and he declared this to be the result of figures ob- 

 tained by the office of markets and rural organiza- 

 tion of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture. He further stated that in those states of New 

 England where the total cost is lowest (about 6 l / 2 

 per cent) the extra charge on the average is pnly 

 about l / 2 to 1 per cent ; in the more highly developed 



farming regions of the corn belt, where total costs 

 range between 7 and 8 per cent on personal and col- 

 lateral loans, the average extra cost is less than 1 

 per cent. In those states of the South and West 

 that have the highest average for total costs the 

 average extra charge often ranges between 2 l /2 and 

 Z l /2 per cent. Similar variations are also found with- 

 in many states. 



In eastern Nebraska, so states the professor, 

 the average total cost for such loans is 8.3 per cent, 

 while in western Nebraska it reaches 10.6 per cent, 

 illustrating contrasts in interest rates that generally 

 obtain as between the relatively highly developed 

 agricultural areas with abundant rainfall and the 

 semi-arid farther west, and emphasizing the import- 

 ance of climatic conditions as one factor affecting 

 interest rates. Prof. Thompson also tells us that no 

 factor affecting interest charges is of greater impor- 

 tance than the method and system of farming. The 

 best credit will always tend to go to those farming 

 regions having safe and regular incomes from year 

 to year. 



Preference in credit, it appears, will be given 

 where population is fairly stable rather than shift- 

 ing, and another important feature to all farmers is 



