22 BULLETIN 1048, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Crop liens come next in importance, being relatively common all 
over the southern, central, and western part of the country, but 
practically unknown in States of the East. As the practice of crop 
insurance develops, crop liens will no doubt become more common as a 
form of security. 
Considerable interest has been shown recently in an improved 
system of warehouse receipts. The fifth column of Table 6 indicates 
that although some loans are secured by this type of collateral, it 
as yet plays a minor part. As improved marketing systems are 
adopted for the various farm products, greater attention undoubtedly 
will be given to warehouse receipts. Their acceptability as security 
has been demonstrated particularly in certain southern States where 
warehouses are operated under the joint supervision of the State and 
Federal Governments. 
The flotation and wide distribution of Government bonds during 
and after the war, which were bought by farmers largely on patriotic 
grounds, will no doubt explain the relatively large and uniform per- 
centages of loans reported as secured by stocks and bonds. Unfor- 
tunately, the farmers as a class have not yet attained a position where 
they have an appreciable amount of earnings to place in investments 
outside of their own business. 
TERM OF LOAN. 
•One of the most frequent complaints heard with reference to bank 
loans to farmers is that the term is too short to meet the needs of the 
producers of agricultural products, particularly those producing live 
stock. Table 7 presents the average maximum term of personal and 
collateral loans to farmers as reported by 8,008 banks. For the 
United States as a whole, nearly one-half of the banks reported a 
maximum term of 6 months or less, and most of the remaining banks 
reported a term ranging from 9 months to a year. The shorter 
maximum term prevails to a larger extent in the East, but in the 
geographic divisions where agriculture is considered of chief impor- 
tance the longer maximum term is more common. 
Table 8 presents the average term of such loans. As might be 
expected, the average as well as the maximum term was reported in 
approximate periods only. For this reason, it was not possible to 
tabulate the replies in groups which are mutually exclusive. For 
the United States, the average term falls between 3 and 6 months. 
Practically one-fourth of the loans run for 6 months or more. In 
the Eastern States, more loans are made for a term of 3 months or 
less, than for 6 months or more, but in the central and western sections 
the reverse is true. 
