222 
AMERICAN POMOIyOGICAL, SOCIETY 
from one to ten years with real estate as security and the right to pay the 
last year the same as the first — the tenth year the same as the first year. 
Not only that. In this country more than in any other country since the 
world began, so far as we know, we have invented, we have worked out 
machinery and equipment to do the work for us. No other country in the 
known civilized world has done so< much in so short a time. But great 
numbers of farmers, literally hundreds of thousands of them, have not the 
money to buy the machinery and equipment, and physical labor is wasted 
when a machine would do the job. ft would be just like going, or sending 
word, out through three or four mediums, to the outer part of our office 
building without simply using one messenger — just like it would be for the 
farmer of the present day to go out and do physical labor when machinery 
could do it for him ; and of course this does not really pay him and it handi- 
caps his production, and it is the same thing for all kinds of his farm 
produce. Machinery is absolutely essential, but the machinery will not re- 
main in best condition and it will not pay for itself usually in two, three or 
maybe five years. But it will possibly last for ten years, in which event 
why should not the farmer be allowed to purchase machinery on com- 
fortable terms with the idea that it would pay for itself in about ten years? 
We have perhaps institutions to handle that at the present time, where 
machinery is sold on credit very largely, charging enormous interest on the 
unpaid principal and the entire amount — always stinging the farmer in the 
business, and with no gradual system of repayment. 
Grow an Orchard on Time. 
It is the same problem if the farmer wishes to have cattle or any other 
kind of livestock on the farm. He buys a calf; it is two years before that 
calf is old enough to kill for meat, or three before it is old enough to 
produce milk, butter, cheese or anything of that kind. During 
this time the farmer is left with no income but with these thirty, 
sixty or ninety day payments or renewals staring him in the face. The 
orchard is as serious a problem, because his orchard must be set out, taking 
all these chances while the thing is growing and maturing, working with it 
and expending time, labor and money on it for three, five, perhaps ten years, 
while it is not producing enough income to pay for itself. There is an 
illustration where the proper thing (and I say that because I realize so 
consciously the better conditions in European countries), would be an in- 
stitution so that the farmer wishing to set out an orchard may take a loan 
for a period of ten years, with a clause providing that he need not pay back 
any of it during the first five years because the orchard is not yet producing. 
Let him just pay his interest during the first five years, and then beginning 
with the sixth, through to the tenth, not only interest on a renewal for the 
period on the amount, but so that at the end of the time after the second 
five years he will have paid for that particular piece of his farm and it 
shall be his. 
Long-time credit — that is the side of credit that has been least taken 
care of in this country. We have practically no system.; we need, then. 
