Credit For Farmers

We have lately giveu some account oí the operatiou of agricultural bauks in Europe, which have done very much for the fariniug class by making it possible for it to secure loans onsnch security as farmers eau offer. The farmer is especially in need of credit, for the interval must always be considerable between the preparation of the soil and the harvesting of the erop. He must spend money a long time before he can get any back. As to most of nis producís, he may be said to be cairying on a business where the stock is turned over but once a year. Furthermoré, as a erop matures all over the country at the same season, and generally withinaperiod of a few weeks, it is particularly important to the farmer that he sbould not be compelled to realize on nis harvests immediately. He would break the market if hc were obliged to sell all bis crops as soon as gatbered, and yet he must sell a good deal, for he has been under expense for months without any income. While the farmer more than almost any other producer needs credit, he cannot generally offer commercial security, and real estáte is not a good security for ordinary banks of discount to take, and it is unlawful for our national banks to accept it. The result is that the farmer is usually compelled to sell his produce at an unpropitious time or to get credit of merchants and private bankers for which usurious rates are obtained. In this country there has been practically no effort to supply this need for agricultural credits, although the brokers and private bankers and factors who have made a practice of lending to farmers have made a great deal of money out of it, for the absence of competition enables theru to get a high rate for money, and the farmer pretty generally pays his debts. It is singular that in our own country no effort has been made to afford agriculture in general the capital it needs for the improving of land and for carrying on farm operations during the long intervals between the annual marketing of crops. The changed conditions of the times make it imperativo that farming must be conducted upon more scientific principies so as to get out of the land more than it has heretofore produced, and that necessity leaves no alternativa but either to afford the farmer enlarged credit f acilities or to leave the present landholders to be frozen out by insolvency, with the result of transferring this industry to a class possessing ampler means and able to cultívate larger farms upon improved methods. - Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin.