In one way or another banking will undoubtedly become a larger and larger, as well as a more usually employed, mechanism in connection with business, and from the practical standpoint the problem of its development will be that of .adapting it to different phases of economic activity and in such a way as to fit these activities in with the general scheme of things so as to produce a harmonious development. By way of illustration we may take the case of the farmer, who for many years past has been so extensively regarded as the special beneficiary of the nation. In the case of the farmer the problem of credit is first of all the same as that of any other producer - to supply him with that amount of credit he legitimately needs in the conduct of his business. Secondly, the farmer's credit problem includes the provision of proper means for holding and marketing the crop over a reasonable period. Thirdly, the farmer is also a consumer, and a proper credit system for him includes definite provision for a reasonable length of time in financing his purchases, pending the acquirement of income sufficient to pay for them - in those cases, of course, where they represent a productive investment, as with seed, farm machinery, etc.

We now have in many countries a more or less adequate means of providing long-term credit for the farmer as a purchaser of land. In most countries we lack adequate farm marketing credit. This is now in process of development in the United States as well as elsewhere, and it may be expected that within a reasonable term of years due provision will be made for enabling the farmer to dispose of his crops steadily and regularly without the necessity of sacrifice sales or undue losses resulting from a narrow market or the disposal of the product to a single man. As this system of rural credit is developed it will be adapted to the general commercial banking system in such a way as to permit it to draw fully and fairly upon the general pool of resources, but at the same time to avoid drawing off more than the proportionate share of fluid funds to which the producer of agricultural goods is entitled. There are similar problems of banking and credit to be developed in nearly all industries. In the past the practice of regarding the banking system as "sound" when it had assumed a stereotyped form, and of denouncing it if it refused to lend upon any security except that of classical or conventional type, has been too prevalent. The future development of banking will provide largely for the working out of banking principles in connection with different branches of industry, and the adjustment of the institutions which embody or apply these principles to the combined banking mechanism of the community as a whole. This, in short, will be the important function of banking in modern economic life - the general facilitation of trade and exchange; and this will be the course of development of banking - the adaptation of banking and credit principles to the special conditions or demands of different types of industry in such a way as to apportion to each its due share of the fluid resources of society as determined by demand and supply.