Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1917-01-20
BY FRANK r. WILSON,
OF the Federal Farm Loan Bureau.
(Written for the United Press.)

! BY FRANK K. WILSON,
OF the Federal Farm Loan Bureau.
CWritten for the United Press)
WASHINGTON. Jan. 1.-THE right
to borrow under the Farm Loan Act
| is limited to farmers and prospective
| farmers.
Farmers or prospective farmers who
wish to borrow group themselves into
| Farm Loan Associations, each asso-
! citation being composed of ten or more
farmers, and each association starting
with minimum of at least $4,000
Of loans
To join, a farmer merely makes
application to the secretary treasurer
of the loan association in his commu-
nifty. If none has been organized he
should get together the required num-
Der of borrowers and organize an as
ISOLATION.
The Federal Farm Loan Board at
| Washington will furnish, on applica-
ton. a blank form of articles of as
ISOLATION for such organizations. Then
the organizers meet and adopt these
articles and sign them and the sec
retary-treasurer makes affidavit there
| to.
This association then elects five or
more directors and the directors then
elect president, vice-president, secre-
iary-treasurer and a loan committee
of three members.
| AS soon as the Federal Land Bank
| Of that district is ready for business
it will provide this local association
| with additional blanks including an
| application for a charter and blanks
for the loan committee to use in the
work of appraising the farms.
| AS soon as the loan committee is
elected it may proceed to appraise the
! farms upon which mortgages are to
be placed. It's report, which must be
unanimous, must accompany the sign,
cd articles of association and be filed
with the Federal Land Bank of that
district.
When this is done the appraiser of
| the Federal Land Bank will come to
inspect the security offered and ac-
cept or reject the report of the loan
committee.
No one farmer may borrow more
than $4,000 nor less than 800. No
National Farm Loan association may
start with aggregate loans less than
$4,000.
II John Smith. a farmer desires to
borrow $4,000 he invests in the stock
of his local loan association one-twen-
tieth of this amount, or $500.
His association then invests this
money in the stock of the Federal
Land Bank, enabling it thus to in
crease its capital so as to make an
other loan of $4,000 to some other
farmer. The borrower gets his invest
ment back when he pays off his loan,
or he may turn it in as the last pay
ment on his loan.
Farmers are required to form these
organizations so that they eventually
will control the Federal Land Banks.
Each loan association votes in the
election of the directors of its Fed.
eral Land Bank Each association
has loan committee which values the
land of its members subject to the
approval of the land bank appraiser
and the Federal Land Bank. Each
association has board of directors
which has the power to exclude OF
admit new members by one-third
vote. 1t is through this local loan
association that the farmer invest:
the money to be used for increasing
the capital stock of the Federal Land
Banks, and this is how the farmer
comes into possession of his own banl
ing system.
y Farmers are permitted to borrow
t up to 30 per cent of the appraised
/ value Of their land and 20 per cen
/. OF the appraised value of the perma
e nent insured Improvement thereon.
n 1t is not necessary for a borrower
n to be an actual land owner he joins
c but the landless man must use thu
money to purchase land which h