The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1913-12-27
REPORT ON THE
RURAL CREDITS

bers of the American rural credits
commission, have just made at
the request of Governor Lister, a
final report on the agricultural
credit needs of this state. One
copy of this report, based on a
thorough study of European credit
systems as applied to the needs
of this state, has been filed with
the governor, while Senator Met
calf took another copy to a meet
ing of the American commission
at Washington, D. C.
The "Landschaften system"
which allows farmers to band to-
gether to obtain long time loans
for district improvement, is rec
commended for adoption by the
Washington commissioners. The
plan is similar to that applied in
drainage and irrigation districts.
To guarantee security for such
long time loans, however, the
farmers must manage their farms
so as not to rob the soil, the COM
missioners report.
The first section of the report,
which is of the utmost interest
to Washington farmers, as the
present session of congress is ex-
pected to enact legislation follow
ing the report of the American
commission. is printed below.
The balance of the report will be
printed in succeeding issues of
this paper:
To the Governor of f.Washington-Pur-
suant to your request tor report upon
the agricultural needs of the state, for
transmission to the Permanent Ameri-
can Commission on Agricultural Finance,
Production, Distribution, Rural Life:
The soil and climate of Washington
are unsurpassed for agriculture. 1t is
the one state capable of producing prac-
tically everything needed. Its progress
and the happiness and prosperity of its
people would continue, if 1t were separ-
ated from the rest of the world by an
impossible wall.
In Washington as elsewhere the
fermers are under capitalized. A sys-
tenn of very long time farm loans is
needed on the amortization plan. This
can best be secured on the Landschaft-
en- system of collective security. This
state has extended this system from
cities and counties and school districts
to port districts, diking districts, drain
age districts, irrigation districts and
agricultural development districts. 1t
should be extended to provide collective
security for loans for thirty years or
longer to farmers, payable by amorti-
zation. Short time personal loans are
also needed at very greatly reduced
rate of interest and much more easily
to be obtained.
This necessitates guarantee that
the security, individual or collective,
land or personal, shall not deteriorate in
value, that it shall be worth as much
intrinsically at any time during the loan
and when the mortgage is due, as it is
the day of the loan. A loan is not JUS
titled on a farm which the borrower
robs Of its productive value, to leave it
stripped of fertility and productivity,
as we have done in America for several
generations. Farming must be so man.
aged, crops so planned, fertilizer so
used, that its value is not stolen but
maintained, its vital element restored
as it is withdrawn in crops. Every
farmer in Europe knows this; his first
thought is study and analysis of the
soil, crop rotation and fertilizer and be-
fore he buys his seed, he buys his chem
ical. Maintaining the productivity of
the soil is contract feature in his loan
Some European governments by law
prescribe a crop rotation that shall ac-
complish this, for without it ruin and
starvation would be inevitable.
To this end dairying and raising beef
cattle is essential to the grain belt of
eastern Washington and is probably
the best first step in the development
of the logged-off lands of western
Washington. This will not only pre-
serve fertility but will double the value
of the land and produce greatly increas-
ed returns. This state is shipping a
large amount of lumber east for silos
in the grain states. 1t would profit
thousand times more if these silos were
constructed and utilized here in every
agriculture section of Washington. 1t
has been demonstrated that corn can be
grown for silage anywhere in the state.
It should be grown. The carbohydrates
are essential. Alfalfa and clover are
matter of course. When our farmers
add a dairy herd and silo, they have
taken long step toward providing the
protective security that will be needed