Agricultural Credit Banks. 



43 



to encounter all the difficulties of a pioneer effort, and 

 to-day, after eight years' successful working, is more highly 

 appreciated by its members than ever. 



On his recent tour through the agricultural counties Mr. 

 H. Rider-Haggard visited this little co-operative bank, and 

 was loud in his praises of the good which it had effected by 

 assisting quite a number of industrious struggling folk to 

 advance themselves in life in an independent manner. In a 

 subsequent article describing his investigations he quoted 

 three cases in which the bank had been of considerable 

 service to its members. 



Case i. — A farm labourer, an industrious man, who had 

 brought up a large family, had managed to save a little money. 

 He took half an acre, then three acres and the proverbial 

 cow ; then, when nearly sixty years of age, seized the oppor- 

 tunity to hire a small farm of fifty acres, which he managed 

 to enter and stock, except with sheep. To purchase these the 

 Scawby Society granted him a loan of £$o on the security of 

 his live and dead stock and corn in stack, which he insured at 

 the instance of the society for £1 50. 



But for this loan the borrower would have had to sell 

 his sheep food to his own loss, and to the damage of the 

 farm. Having punctually discharged his debt, he applied 

 for a fresh loan of ^40 again to buy sheep, as his roots were 

 more plentiful than in the previous season. The loan was 

 granted on the same security as before, and duly discharged. 



A further loan of £20 was granted, and paid off to the day. 

 After a year, the borrower saw a chance of placing his sons 

 on a small farm, which he partially stocked for them. In 

 order to do this, however, and replenish his own holding, he 

 applied for another loan of £50, which was granted on the 

 same security. This chain of loans, therefore, assisted in 

 starting the tenants of two small holdings, and it is estimated 

 that if the original borrower were now to go out of farming, 

 after six years, he would be found to have quadrupled the 

 capital with which he started. 



Case 2. — A working foreman heard of the Scawby Credit 

 Bank, and deposited with it a sum of £§0. When the chance 

 offered of taking a farm of seventy-three acres he borrowed 



