has, practically eliminated the common law practice. Trial by jury as practiced in most of the states is a classic illustration of this fact. It is a fact well known to students of jurisprudence that the English reformed procedure has been eminently satisfactory for nearly half of a century, and that the New Jersey Act of 1912 has met the expectation of its friends. The American Bar has recommended to Congress, "to authorize the Supreme Court of the United States to prescribe forms and rules, and generally regulate pleading, procedure and practice on the common law side of the federal courts."

The senior justice of the appellate courts, if there is a separate set of subordinate appellate courts, should be constituted the administrative agent for these courts to divide the docket, to preserve unity among the courts, to shift judges, and to convene the courts. His authority should be subordinate to and in harmony with that of the chief justice of the state,

The senior justice in the district courts should be designated as the administrative agent of the district courts to see that these courts perform the fundamental task of great trial courts of the Commonwealth. He should have authority to divide the district courts into divisions, to designate one division for civil matters, to shift judges from one division to another and from district to district, and to convene the district courts whenever there is litigation to be adjudicated.

There should be effective control over the county courts by these district courts. The senior justice of each district court should be permitted to appoint for a period of five years the county judge and his associates from a list of lawyers recommended by the local bar association. This county court should be sufficiently large to handle the litigation of the county. If business requires it, there should be associate justices who should hold court at various points in the county under the direction of the senior justice of the district court. In urban communities, there should be a special division of the county court so constituted and so admin

istered as to be peculiarly fitted to adjudicate litigation arising in an industrial community.

The justice's court should be retained but reconstructed by giving the county judge the power to appoint for a period of five years a sufficient number of justices to meet the demands of the county for this class of litigation. These justices should be paid a salary ranging from $100 to $500, and should be subject to the county judge as the administrative official for the county system of courts. The county judge shall also have the power to appoint and dismiss conciliators and arbiters as the plan of organization provides.

It is the purpose of this proposal to give especial attention to the creation of an efficient system of courts for all grades of litigants throughout the state; but on the assumption that the rich litigant can generally care for himself, special emphasis is laid upon the necessity of a carefully planned set of lower courts from the district courts to the justice's courts to the end that a satisfactory settlement may be provided for the claims of the poorer class of litigants as well as for the more fortunate members of the body politic. The lower courts should be just as efficient as the higher courts. Democracy demands justice for all.

INTERMEDIATE-TIME CREDITS FOR

AGRICULTURE1

A. B. COX

Texas Agricultural Experiment Station

The Evolution of Agriculture and Agricultural Production

Notwithstanding the fact that agriculture was the first of the great occupations to be followed by man in the development of modern civilization, it has been the last to adopt modern business methods. Agricultural practices were developed at a time when capital goods were few in numbers, simple in construction, and inexpensive. The farmers either made their own instruments of production or else waited until they had accumulated a sufficient surplus of products to barter for the desired articles.

At this stage of development credit was used primarily to obtain goods for immediate consumption, and borrowing was properly considered a sign of poor management and the practice was rightly condemned. The borrower was looked upon with contempt, or as a subject of charity.

Modern agriculture is a very different process from what it was in primitive days, and must likewise be financed differently. The tremendous increase in the numbers and complexities of machines used in agriculture, the use of fertilizer to stimulate yield and improve quality, and the combination of expensive livestock with cropping operations to secure a well balanced organization, have made large amounts of capital essential to efficient production.

Formerly, agricultural practices were matters of tradi

1Paper read at the Third Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Political Science Association, Norman, Oklahoma, March 23, 1922. This paper is based upon "An Economic Study of a Typical Ranching Area in the Edwards Plateau of Texas," by B. Youngblood, Director, and A. B. Cox, Chief of the Division of Farm and Ranch Economics, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas.

tion handed down from father to son. Modern agriculture is concerned primarily with the proper co-ordination and manipulation of the laws of the physical, biological, and economic sciences which are applicable to agriculture. Knowledge, and not physical strength, has become the predominant factor in determining success or failure. Modern agricultural high schools, colleges and other educational institutions have made it their business to supply the desired technical information, and have placed opportunities of acquiring the knowledge necessary for the practice of scientific agriculture within the reach of all. As a result, many are now acquiring the ability to handle large amounts of productive capital in agriculture, but are deprived of the use of their abilities because of a faulty credit system. They are forced to begin with inadequate facilities and accumulate working capital in such tiny driblets that it often takes ten or fifteen years for a man to equip himself for most efficient production. As a result, the most vigorous often refuse to go into agriculture because of the handicaps which are a result very largely of an antiquated system of financing productive enterprises on the farm. Many who do go in become so discouraged because of a lack of adequate equipment and the resulting slow processes of accumulation that they either quit, or simply lose their ambitions to get ahead.

It is quite generally recognized that our credit system has not kept pace with the development of scientific agriculture, and with the increased abilities of farmers. There are still many agricultural communities where the farmers take off their hats and tremble in the presence of the local banker, as though they were asking for charity when asking for a loan to buy livestock or a productive machine. Where such a condition prevails, the banker practices a pawn brokerage business, and the farmers are forced to follow a miserable "hand-to-mouth" sort of agriculture. Such conditions are intolerable, if our farmer folk are to receive their rightful share of the national dividend.

Three Types of Credit Required in Agriculture

Land or Long-Time Credit.—Modern agriculture requires at least three different types of credit. The producer of any agricultural product must first secure the physical plant, the land and permanent improvements, required to carry on the business. The land does not wear out under proper care and it produces but a small fraction of its capitalized value each year. The proper credit system for the purchase of agricultural land requires a long time to correspond to the rate of turnover of the investment and a system of amortization payments.

Marketing or Short-Time Credits.-The limitations of nature prevent the farmers and other agricultural producers from establishing a continuous harvest of their crops. Indeed, it is often necessary to harvest the products of an entire year within the course of a few weeks. If the farmers are to prevent the volume of their produce from unduly depressing the price, they must devise a means of marketing which will prevent, as nearly as possible, seasonal gluts and scarcities. They thus require a system of credits based on warehouse receipts, or similar evidence, to prevent dumping and to make the orderly merchandising of their products possible. These are commercial loans and can ordinarily be turned within six months or less.

Capital or Intermediate-Time Credit.-A suitable system of long-time credits for the purchase of land and of shorttime system of credit for the proper merchandising of agricultural products are essential, but land without labor and capital to work it is useless, and a marketing system is of service only when there are products to be marketed. It is the function of intermediate-time credit to provide labor and working capital. Agricultural capital consists of such things as livestock, agricultural machinery, and fertilizer.

The productive enterprises undertaken by the farmer turn faster than land, but they do not turn as fast as his marketing operations. The man who raises steers for the market turns his capital once in four or five years. The farmer who buys a tractor, a thresher or some other machine, does