nts. Yet the land was
there ready to produce, the labor was there, more or less willing to work
if it could but live while the crop was growing. The country merchant had
already assumed the office of banker to the tenant farmer, and this
position he still holds in spite of all efforts to dislodge him. His
customers include not only tenants but some landowners, white or black.
They buy from him, during the months before the crop is gathered, the food,
clothing, and other supplies necessary for existence, and as many simple
luxuries as he will permit. When the crops are gathered, he buys them, or
at least the share of them belonging to the tenant, subtracts the store
accounts, and turns over the surplus, if any, to the farmers.

Unlike other bankers, the merchant charges no interest upon the capital
he advances, but he is paid nevertheless. For every pound of bacon,
meal, and flour, for every gallon of molasses, for every yard of cloth,
for every plug of tobacco or tin of snuff which the customer consumes
during the spring and summer, an advanced price is charged to him on the
merchant's books. With thousands of these merchants selling to hundreds
of thousands of farmers over a wide area, it is of course impossible to
state the average difference between credit and cash prices.
Investigations made in different sections show a wide variation
depending upon custom, competition, the reliability and industry of the
customer, the amount of advances, and the length of credit. Since a large
part of the advances are made during the six, or even four months before
the crops are gathered, the difference between cash and credit prices
amounts often to an interest charge of forty to one hundred per cent or
even more a year. These advanced credit prices, and consequently the high
interest rates, may be paid not only upon food, clothing, and other
personal goods, but also, occasionally, upon tools, farming implements,
fertilizers, and work animals.

The merchant is supposed to be protected against loss by the institution
of the crop lien and the chattel mortgage. By one or the other of these
the farmer is enabled to mortgage his growing, or even his unplanted
crops, his farming implements, his cattle, and horses, if he owns them.
If he is a landowner, the land may be included in a mortgage as
additional security. The crop is conveyed to the mortgagee as in an
ordinary land mortgage, and the tenant cannot hold back his crop for a
bett